UC-NRLF 


^B    37    13fl 


v.: 


CAUSE  OF,  AND  CURE  FOR, 


CONTAINING 

^     A  IJEFmiTIOJY 

OF    THE    ATTRIBUTES    AND    QUALITIES 
•     IXmSPEXSABLE  IJ^"  MOKEY 

AS  xl  MEDIUM  OF  COMMERCE  5    - 

AND   ALSO,  ... 

■ft ' 
AN    INVESTIGATION    OF    THE 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  BAXKLYG  SYSTEM, 

J\'EWrORk: 
PRINTED    FOR    THE    PROPRIETOR. 


1818. 


C3^ 


4»: 


•••  •  ••  •  ••» .». ••  • 


i 


INTRODUCTION. 

IN  proportion  to  the  weakness  of  men's  minds,  they 
become  susceptible  of  delusions  of  every  kind. 

By  whatever  means  the  imbecility  is  produced,  whe- 
ther pristine  ignorance,  luxury,  or  superstition,  is  im- 
material, the  effects  thence  resulting  are  the  same. 

Human  nature,  perhaps,  cannot  form  a  greater  con- 
trast, than  between  the  old  Roman  republic  and  the  mo- 
dern dealers  in  beads  and  catgutj  who  disgrace  the 
same  ground. 

It  staggers  modern  credulity  to  believe  that  men 
could  ever  be  so  gulled  or  infatuated,  as  to  multiply 
their  fancied  deities,  so  as  to  assign  guardians  to  the 
seas,  forests  and  brooks.  Well  might  they,  who  wor- 
sliipped  the  deity  of  a  brook,  pay  their  adoration  to  the 
sun  ;  and  the  first  step  being  taken,  the  earth  was  soon 
covered  with  deities,  so  that,  at  length,  bulls,  cats  and 
onions  came  to  be  worshipped.  To  do  this,  men  must 
have  been  devoid  of  the  least  mite  of  reason  and  common 
sense,  yet  the  superstitious  enthusiasm  that  still  pre- 
vails in  some  countries,  is  quite  as  ridiculous,  and  con^ 
tinucs  a  badge  of  spiritual  tyranny  an  the  one  hand,  and 
slavery  on  the  other,  which  infinitely  surpasses  all  the 
fabled  superstition  of  pagan  Rome.  But  in  these  states, 
in  this  enlightened  age,  we  boast  of  our  liberality,  and 
of  having  divested  our  minds  of  all  such  superstitions 
and  prejudice's.  It  is  sufficient  for  us  to  swallow  bank 
transubstantiations  of  property ;  and  yet  our  infatuation 
falls  little  short  of  the  before-cited  phrenzy,  when  we 
can  really  believe  that  the  wealth  and  power  of  a  na- 
tion, to  be  truly  and  substantially  expressed  and  re- 
presented by  scraps  of  paper,  which  are  jso  far  from  he- 


M17454 


IV 

ing  property,  or  the  true  signs  of  property,  that  they 
signify  nothing  but  iniposter  on  the  one  hand,  and  cre- 
dulity and  foi]y  on  the  other,  which  may  be  annihilated 
by  the  most  trifling  ciicumstance — even  one  breath  ot* 
suspicion  would  destroy  millions  in  a  moment.  Whilo 
we  ridicule  ancient  superstition  we  have  an  implicit 
faith  in  the  bubble3  of  banking,  and  yet  it  is  diilicult  to 
discover  a  greater  absurdity,  in  ascribing  omnipotence 
to  bulls,  cats  and  onions,  than  for  a  man  to  carry  about 
a  thousand  acres  of  land,  with  a  mansion-house,  out- 
houses, kc.  in  his  pocket-book,  which  is,,  nevertheless, 
done  among  us  every  day,  with  great  self-complaisance 
and  security.  And  though  we  laugh  at, him,  who,  put- 
ting a  wafi  r  into  our  mouth,  cries  Hock  est  corpus,  we 
have  no  suspicion  of  the  bank  juggler,  who,  putting 
some  slimsey  bits  of  paper  into  our  hands,  tells  us  it  is 
a  freehold  estate,  a  house,  or  a  fine  ship  of  five  hun- 
dred tons. 

This  gross  bubble  is  practised  every  day,  even  upon 
the  infidelity  of  avarice  itself ;  this  rather  exceeds  than 
falls  short  of  ancient  illusions,  because  the  objects  it 
converses  with  are  sensible  and  more  open  to  detection. 
So  we  see  wise  and  honest  Americans,  of  the  19th  cen- 
tury,  embracing  phantoms   for  realities,  and  running 
mad  in  schemes  of  refinement,  tastes,  pleasures,  wealth 
and  power,  by  the  soul  aid  of  this  hocus  jwcus.     When 
we  contemplate  paper  gold,  and  paper  land,  and  paper 
houses,  and  paper  revenues,  and  paper  government,  we 
are  apt  to  believe  the  fairy  tales  of  Gulliver,   and  the 
Arabian   Nights,  as  grave  relations  of  historical  facts. 
Indeed,  we  live  in  an  age  that  resembles  neither  the 
gold,  silver  or  iron  ages t>f  the  poets  ;  but  may,  with  an 
emphatieal  propriety,  be  called  the  paper  age,  and  the 
name  fools-cap  becomes  infinitely  more  appropriate. 


CHAP.  I.    •  \  :         ' 

A  definition  of  the  attrihutes  and  qualities 
Indispensable  in  Money, 

THE  barter  of  commoilitics,  or  coramunicationofthe 
fruits  of  industry,  constitute  fhe  essence  of  ct>mmerce. 

In  the  present  state  of  society  the  partition  of  em- 
ployments is  almost  infinitely  diversiiied,  and  the  fruits 
of  well  directed  industry,  or  things  necessary  and  use- 
ful in  lifcj  are  what  only  can  b?  called  wealth. 

In  establishing  a  mutual  exchange  of  these,  the  first 
thing  necessary  is  a  standard  of  computation,  or  com- 
mon measure,  by  which  to  es^mate  the  several  com- 
modities that  may  be  olfered  for  sale,  or  may  be  desired 
by  purchasers.  This  standard,  or  common  measure, 
called  money,  must  be  something  well  known  to  the 
parties  and  of  general  or  common  use. 

It  appears,  in  remote  antiquity,  that  in  the  early 
stages  of  society  cattle  were  the  first  things  made 
use  of  as  a  standard,  but  from  the  disproportion  of  size 
and  fatness,  measures  of  corn,  wine  and  oil  soon  suc- 
ceeded, the  first  of  these  being  the  least  liable  to  varia- 
tion is,  of  all  others,  from  its  nature,  more  intelligible 
^nd  unaltei'able  than  any  money  that  ever  was,  or  ever 
will  be  made.  The  gi-eut  alteration  in  the  value*  c?f 
gold  and  silver  is  well  known  to  the  historian,  and  is 
also  known  to  many,  by  memory,  in  this  country  since 
its  first  settlement.  But  after  a  standard  of  computa- 
tion hnrt  been  agreed  on  in  commerce  of  the  most  moderate 


extent,  something  farther  is  ahsolutely  necessary.  The 
ai^tual  and  immediate  barter  of  commodities  couM  in 
few  icstauoes  fake  place.  A  man  might  have  the  thing 
I  wanted  to  pui^chase ;  but  he  might  not  need,  or  de- 
sire:, ins  artjclp  1  was  willing  to  give  for  it ;  another 
might  want  what  I  had  to  spare,  but  not  have  what  I 
in/anted  to  purchase  with  it ;  besides,  bulky  articles 
could  not  be  carried  about  with  convenience  or  safety. 
Therefore,  it  became  very  early  necessary  that  there 
should  be  some  sign  or  signs  agreed  upon  to  represent 
the  absent  commodity,  or  rather  should  represent  the 
standard  of  computation  in  all  its  divisions  and  multi- 
plications. These  signs  must  be  such  as  could  be  easily 
carried  about,  and  therefore  could  be  readily  applied 
to  every  transaction  connected  with  the  commutation  of 
property. 

These  signs  are  in  the  nature  of  a  tally — that  is  to 
say,  they  are  intended  to  mark  and  ascertain  a  fact. 
Now  the  fact  is,  that  tue  person  who  can  show  these 
signs,  having  purchased  them  by  his  goods  or  industry, 
is  entitled  to  recieve  from  somebody  a  certain  value  to 
a  certain  amount,  which  they  specify  of  the  standard  of 
computation. 

These  have  always  references  to  the  standard  of 
computation,  and,  at  last,  by  that  known  reference, 
the  distinction  between  them  and  the  standard  is  lost, 
and  they  become  a  secondary  standard  of  computation 
themselves.  Thus  a  piece  at  first  to  be  the  value  of  a 
measure  of  grain,  but  at  last  men  come  to  make  their 
i'.argain  by  the  number  of  pieces,  instead  of  the  number 
of  measures,  using  the  sign  for  the  thing  signified. 
Thus,  also,  an  ideal  measure,  generated  by  the  other 
two,  comes  to  be  a  standard  of  computation ;  as  the 
pound  was  formerlv  the  money  unit,  though  there  was 
no  coin  precisely  corresponding  to  it.     Thus  during  the 


devolution,  in  the  years  1777  and  1778,  paper  being,  as 
now,  the  only  circulating  medium  and  greatly  depre- 
ciated, and  legislatures,  at  that  time,  retaining  some 
sense  of  honor  and  honesty,  made  several  attempts  to 
institute  rules  by  which  the  just  value  should  be  ascer- 
tained ;  but  finding,  by  experience,  that  their  efforts 
were  fruitless,  the  people  resorted  immediately  to  tilt 
original  standard  of  measures  of  grain,  that  being  the 
best  alternative  ;  and  this  mode  of  computation  de- 
termined the  value  of  silver  and  gold  themselves  and 
was  practised  in  many  of  these  states  for  some  years 
after  the  total  annihilation  of  paper  circulation,  and  I 
am  informed  that  it  begins  to  be  resorted  to  again  in 
some  sections  of  the  country. 

Thus  it  being  proved,  by  the  experience  both  of  an- 
cient and  modern  times,  that  all  men  resigns  labor  under 
material  defects  ;  that  they  ultimately  depend  on  the 
faith  and  credit  of  the  persons  who  are  answerable  for 
them.  Now  whether  these  are  individuals,  chartered 
companies,  or  even  the  ruling  party  of  a  nation,  they 
are  attended  with  the  greatest  uncertainty.  Therefore 
something  farther  is  necessary  to  make  a  complete 
symbol  or  medium  of  commerce,  that  is,  a  pledge  or 
standard  of  value  that  may  be  a  security  or  equivalent 
for  the  thing  given  for  it,  and  at  all  times  and  in  all 
places,  especially  in  the  same  country,  be  sufficient  to 
Jiurchase  a  like  value  of  any  thing  that  may  be  needed 
l>y  him  that  holds  it.  An  absent  commodity  well  known> 
Or  even  an  idea  well  understood,  may  be  a  standard  of 
computation  and  common  measure ;  any  thing  may  be  a 
sign,  and  since  writing  has  been  known  it  has  been 
iised.  It  is,  however,  totally  defective ;  there  is  a  total 
want  of  value  in  paper,  that  shall  give,  not  only  a  pro- 
mise or  obligatioB^  but  actual  possession  of  property 


8 


lop  pi'operty.     Whatever  may  be  made  use  of  that  falls 
short  of  this  is  totally  unfit  for  a  medium  of  eommej'ee. 

It  has  been  fouiid  by  experience, that  in  gold  and  silver 
are  united  all  the  qualities  requisite  for  such  a  stan- 
dard— they  form  the  great  desideratum.  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  they  have  been  used  for  this  purpose,  in  the 
earliest  times,  and  through  every  nation  in  the  old 
world  and  also  in  the  new.  The  trutii  is,  that  they 
alone  possess,  and  in  a  superior  degree,  all  the  qua1i« 
ties  necessary  for  a  standard  computation  :  this  will 
more  fully  appear,  by  exan»ining  more  minutely  what 
qualities  a  medium  of  general  commerce  ought  to  pos* 
sess.  It  ought  then  to  be,  ist.  valuable — 2d.  rare — 3d. 
portable — 4th.  divisible — 5th.  durable — 6th.  equable. 
Whoever  will  examine  the  matter,  with  attention,  must 
perceive  that  any  one  of  these  qualities  being  wanting^ 
the  system  would  be  ruined. 

1st.  *'  It  must  be  valuable  in  itself;  that  is,  it  must 
have  an  intrinsic  value,  or  worth,  in  substance  distinct 
from  form."  By  value  or  intrinsic  worth  here,  must  be 
understood  precisely  the  same  thing  that  gives  to  e>ery 
other  commodity  its  commercial  value:  This  is,  their 
being  either  necessary  or  reniarkably  useful  for  the 
purposes  of  life,  in  a  social  state,  or  supposed  to  be  so, 
and  therefore  the  object  of  human  desire  ;  without  this 
it  could  be  no  more  than  a  bare  sign,  nor  indeed  so  use- 
ful in  this  view  as  many  other  signs.  But  we  want 
somerhing  that  must  not  only  be  a  standard  of  com- 
putation, but  a  standard  of  value,  and  therefore,  capa- 
ble of  being  a  pledge  and  security  to  the  holder,  for  the 
property  or  labour  he  has  exchanged  for  it.  Gold  and 
silver  have  intrinsic  value,  as  metals,  because  fro'n  their 
ductility,  durability  and  other  qualUii's.  they  are  ex- 
ceedingly fit  for  domestic  utensils,  and  many  oth-r  pur- 
poses in  life  j  this  was  the  foandatioa  of  their  nse,  as, a 


9 

meJium  of  coiumeree,  and  was  inseparable  from  it ;  a 
clear  deinonstr'ation  of  this  arises  from  their  beinj; 
weighed  in  (iio  earliest  times,  before  they  were  divided 
into  sma'l.M*  pieces  and  passed  by  taU^,  and  their  vahje 
determined  liy  their  bu'k  or  (|uan<ity  proportionablj. 
This  circumsranco  as  a  siii;n  made  tbein  worse  ;  but  as 
a  valnable  metal  made  them  better. 

The  same  thin^j;  appears  cleai'ly  from  the  practice  of 
modern  times.  Even  when  they  are  taken  under  the 
management  of  the  rulers  of  society,  and  stamped  under 
various  denominations,  there  must  be  an  exact  regard 
liud  to  their  commercial  value.  The  stamp  upon  them 
is  the  sign  5*  the  intrinsic  worth  of  the  meta!  is  the  va- 
lue. It  is  now  found,  and  admitted,  by  every  nation, 
that  tliey  must  give  to  every  piece  ^hat  ^denomination 
and  value  in  legal  currency,  that  it  bears  in  bullion, 
and  if  any  do  otherwise,  their  is  neither  force  nor  au- 
thority sufficient  to  make  it  pass. 

2d.  That  it  must  be  rare,  will  be  more  fully  illustrat- 
ed hereafter.  Permit  me,  however,  hereto  observe, 
that  the  medium  of  commerce  must  not  only  be  sa  rare 
as  to  bring  it  within  commercial  value,  in  ordinary 
cases,  but  if  must  be  much  more  rare  than  most  other 
things,  that  its  value  may 'be  increased,  and  a  small 
quantity  of  it  mny  represent  goods  of  considerable  va- 
riety and  bulk.  If  gold  and  silver  were  only  twenty 
times  as  plentiful  as  they  were  before  thecstabli^hmeut 
of  bank  monopoly,  they  would  still  have  a  proper  value  ; 
could  be  bought  and  sold,  and  be  applied  to  many  useful 
purposes,  but  would  be  twenty  times  as  unfit  for  a  medium 
of  commerce,  or  indeed  totally  unfit  for  general  circula- 
tion. 

3d.  The  circulating  medium  must  be  portable.  Jt 
must  be  capable  of  being,  carried  to  a  distan";e  with  lit- 
tle trouble  w  expense,  and  of  passing  from  hand  to  hand 
with  ease  and  expedition. 

2 


10 

411h  The  medium  of  commerce  must  I)c  divisible  ; 
tliis  is  necessary  to  answer  the  division  of  many  com- 
rriodiufs,  and  to  the  eonvenieace  of  people  of  different 
cirennistanees  in  life.  *  It  is  of  such  importance,  that, 
in  (he  calculation  of  a  complex  and  diversified  com- 
merce, we  find  divisions  and  fractional  parts,  even  of 
the  smallest  coins  that  have  ever  yet  been  "brought  inta 
general  use. 

5th.  The  riedium  of  commerce  ou,;;ht  to  be  durable. 
This  quality  is  necessary  ;  first,  that  in  passing  con- 
tinually, from  Irand  to  hand,  it  may  no(  be  broken  or 
wasted;  and.  secondly,  fhat  if  it  is  preserved,  or  }ayed 
up,  as  may  be^ sometimes  necessary,  desirable,  or  pro- 
fitable, it  may  not  be  liable  to  be  speedily  corrupted  or 
consumed.       • 

6th.  Equiblc — that  is,  these  metals  are  said  to  differ 
from  most,  or  all  others  ;  they,  in  their  virgin  state, 
are  exactly  the  same  whether  found  in  Asia,  Africa  or 
America.  This,  in  an  eminent  degree,  fits  them  for  a  me- 
dium of  circulation,  and  is  an  attribute,  b<  longing  to  no 
other  production  of  nature,  that- we  are  yet  acquainted 
with.  It  is  pSain,  therefore,  that  there  is  nothing*  yet 
known  to  mankind,  in  which  all  the  tiecessary  qualities, 
in  a  medium  of  eomyneree,  are  so  fully  united  as  in  sil- 
ver and  gold,  and  tliis  h  the  true  reason  why  these  me- 
tals have  been  applied  as  the  instruments  of  commei^ce, 
since  the  beginning  of  the  world,  or  as  far  back  *as  his- 
tory enables  us  to  penetriite. 

It  is  a  fact  that  will  not  be  contradicted,  that  gold, 
silver  and  brass,  or  rather  copper,  were  the  most  an- 
cient metals,  and  all  of  them  antecedent  to  iron  These 
metals  beings,  applied  to  all  th.^  purposes  of  life,  came 
of  course  to  constitute  a  great  part  of  the  wealth  of  the 
people  of  ancient  times.  Brass  being  one  of  ihe  metals 
earliest  known,  was  made  use  of  for  money  by  ancient 


11 

nations.  Its  being  now  left  out,  in  a  great  measure,  h 
on  account  of  wanting  one  of  its  vei,\  necessary  quali- 
ties, viz.  variety.  That  it  was  used  for  money  aniowg 
the  Hebrews,  is  evident ;  for  we  read  of  gold,  silver  and 
brass,  being  brouglit  as  contributions  to  the  tab<^i'niicle 
in  Mo!?(^s'  time,  and  to  the  building  of  the  temple  in  the 
lime  of  David. 

That  brass  was  made  use  of  as  money,  in  the  early 
times  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  evidently  appears,  l)Otlr 
from  history  and  from  tlie  language  of  iuith  nations  ; 
for  tliA'e  it, is  made  use  of  to  signify  money  in  g'^neral. 
That  it  ceased  to  serve  that  purpose  afterwards  must 
have  been  on  account  of  its  abundance.  It  can  be  ac- 
counted for  in  no  other  way,  as  the  disuse  of  it  is  just 
as  universal  as  the  use  of  it  was  formerly. 

It  is  also  evident  from  history,  that  all  these  metafs 
were  estimated  and  passed  by  weight.  We  are  toM  in 
Oenesis,  that  Abraham  gave  to  Epron  for  the  cave  of 
Machpelah,  four  h{im]rcil  shekels  of  silver.  The  Greek 
money  was  of  dilFerent  weights,/  from  the  lowest  sorts 
to  the  talent,  which  was  the  largest.  The  old  ISoman 
M'ord  Pondo  was,  as  it  were,  the  standard,  and  the  divi- 
sions of  it,  constituted  their  iliflerent  denominations  — 
From  this  we  seem  to  have  derived  the  word  poised.-- 
It  was  not  long,  however,  before  they  came  to  have 
cither  coins,  or,  at  least,  small  pieces  reckoned  by 
number.  Ahimelech  gave  to  Abraham,  as  Sarah's  bro- 
ther, one  thousand  keseph ;.  and  Joseph  was  sold  for 
twenty  keseph.  As  the  word  keseph  is  said  to  signify 
silver,  they  must  have  been  i*eckoned  h^  tale,  and  are 
probably  very  justly  transjated  pieces.  Antiquarians 
and, historians  tell  us,  that  some  barbarous  nations  have 
made  use  of  baser  metals  :  such  as  lea?',  irofu  tin,  &c.  also 
leather,  shells,  bark  of  certain  trees,  ^vsj.  aad  we  know  iii 


IS 

tbese  (lays,  paper,  far  inferior  in  many  respects  to  tho 
worst  of  ihc  foimor,  is  made  use  of  for  money.  Some 
Haiions  might,  indeed,  use  lead,  iron,  &e.  upon  the  same 
priMci|sles  as  others  use  gold  and  silver,  but  all  this  is 
iisisg  the  sign  s;  parate  from  the  standard,  and  that  en- 
lightened Americans  should  be  imposed  on  by  bank 
paper,  worse  by  far  than  savage  trinkets,  shocks  all 
common  sense. 

I  think  tlte  above  definition  ^vill  enable  every  intelli- 
gent person  to  determine  what  is,  or  ought  (o  be,  the 
meaning  of  the  circulating  medium.  This  phrase  is  in 
everx  bod;y's  mouth,  and  we  frequently  meet  with  it  in 
sperq'aes,  in  legisljitive  assemblies,  and  newspa^jcr  pub- 
lications. 

This    pretended   want   of  a  circulating  medium  lias 
been  successfully  urged  in  favor  of  the  banking  system, 
than  which  nothing  ever  was,  is,  or  can  be  more  false. 
It  never  was  believed  by  those  who  urged  it  in  favor  of 
banks,  nor  by  those  who  granted  their  chasters,  if  they 
po8sesse<l   comtnon  sense,  and   the  least  share  of  infor- 
mation.    Those  who  did,  or  do  believe  it,  must  be  tOr 
tal^y  ignorant  of  the  meaning  of  the  expression.     The 
circulating  medium   is  not  yours  or  mine  ;  it  is  not  the 
riches  of  Peru  or  the  poverty  of  Lapland.     It  is  that  in- 
de^Dite   quantity  of  the   precious   metals   made  use  of 
ami)ng  the  nations  connected  in  commerce.     Whetiicr 
any  particular  person,  city,  or  nation,  is  rich,  or  poor — 
has  more  or  less  of  it  comparatively,  is  nothing  to  the 
purpose.     Every  one  ought,   and  will   receive,    of  the 
ciifu'ating  medium,   <h.ji  qnanlitA  which  he  is  entitled 
to,  by    his   property  or   industry,  unless   it  is  diverted 
from  its  natural   channels  by  the   knavery  of  banking 
legislnfures,  which  is   the  case  in  this  country,  as  will 
more  iulh  appear  iMTeafter.     It  huB  been  sli own   that 
rariiy  is»  one  cf  the  attributes  of  a  circulating  medium^ 


13 

If  there  were  nothing  but  gokl  ar.d  silver  in  circulation, 
a  less  quanlil^v  would  be  sufiieient  to  represent  a  stated 
measure  of  property,  and  the  more  plentiful  it  is,  the 
greater  is  the  quantily  neeessiiry  to  rc|>i'Osent  the 'same 
property  or  commodity  ;  hut  the  comparative  riches  or 
poverty  of  the  person,  city,  or  nation,  would  be  the 
same.  I  well  remember  the  time  when  1  could  pur- 
chase a  bushel  of  wheat,  in  Dutchess  County,  for  three  . 
fourths  of  a  dcfiar,  for  which  I  must  now  pay  tTvo  d/l- 
lars.  Was  not  six  shillings  then  as  good,  as  sixteen 
now  ?  and  was  not  the  man  just  as  rich  who  had  it  ia 
his  pcsscssion  ?  It  would  be  easy  to  point  out  countries 
where  there  has  been  a  .greater  quantity  of  the  cisvu- 
lating  medium,  even  in  gold  and  silver,  than  any  where 
else,  and  yet,  at  the  same  time,  greater  personal  povT- 
ty,  and  also  public  want,  and  lindoubivdly  for  the  same 
reason. 

It  is  well  known  to  the  historian  that  the  troops  of 
Philip  second,  of  Spain,  mutinized  in  Flanders,  for  want 
of  pay,  and  plundered  the  city  of  Antwerp,  when  Ame- 
I'ica  and  the  East-Indies  are  said  tj  have  furnished  him 
with  inexhaustable  resources..    What  docs  it  signify  to 
the  day-laborer,  that  he  gets  eight,  or.  even  ten  shil- 
lings per  day,  when  it  will  scarcely  purcliase  provij>ion% 
sufficient  to  prevent  himself  and  family  from  perishing  ? 
Are  not  these  things  true  ?     Are  they  not  known  to  be 
,  80?     Are  not  gold  and  silver  a  circulating  rkodium  of 
universal  currency  ?     Are  they  too  scarce  fyr  the  pur- 
pose when  the  trappings  of  a  banker's  hftrse,  or  the  col- 
lar of  a  favorite  dog,  is  ornamented  with  more  of  these 
precious   metals,   than  furnishtd  out  the  stadtholder, 
nobility  and  army,  of  tlie  ^even  United  Provinces,  for 
the  whole  forty  years  that  they  were  struggJing  against 
Spanish  tyranny.     I  have  only  to  observe,  in  this  place, 
that  my  reader  may  be  like  luyseii',  a  very  poor  man.; 

4 


14 

we  want  property,  rents,  resources  and  credit  ;  hut  ^Ye 
may  rest  assured  that  bank  notes  will  never  bring  re- 
lief, but  increase  our  poverty  and  consequent  misery. 

If  every  man  could  with  fticility  obtain  the  necessa- 
ries of  life,  and,  obtaining  them,  feel  no  uneasy  crav- 
ings after  superlluiticF,  temptation  would  lose  its  power, 
private  interest  would  accord  with  public  good,  and  nu- 
merous crimes  would  cease.  The  greatest  impediment 
to  such  a  state  of  things  is,  inmost  c^ntries,  the  ir- 
regular transfer  of  property,  either  lirst  by  vio'enee, 
or  secondly  by  fraud,  and  made  perpetual  by  laws  of 
primogeniture.  The  first  arid  last  of  these  being  un- 
known in  these  states,  we  might  suppose  that  the  inor- 
dinate desire  of  individuals  to  possess  themselves  of  the 
substance,  or  property  of  another,  by  means  inconsis- 
tent with  justice,  would  imdoubtedly  be  restrained,  nay 
prohibited,  and  fraud  only  known  by  report.  Society 
co'.DCs  recommended  to  us  by  its  tendency  to  promote 
our  happiness,  but  most  of  the  miseries  of  our  sj)ecics 
may  be  traced  to  political  insthations  as  their  source. 

In  a  government  originating  as  ours  has,  and  where 
all  its  force  and  autliority  is  delegated  temporarily  by 
the  people  to  theii*  representatives  j  ft  would  be  natural 
to  conclude,  that  all  its  laws  would  be  predicated  upon 
the  eternaU  imchangeable  principles  of  justice  and 
equality,  whieh'fiows  from  nature,  and  which  alone  can 
Ije  the  infallible  guide  and  foundation  of  civil  law,  and 
all  that  can  be  right  an()  excellent  in  government.  All 
exercise  of  authority  ought  to  be  in  exact  conformity 
equal  justice,  and  must  have  for  its  object  the  felicity 
of  all  under  its  eontrol,*to  entitle  it  to  respect  and  obe- 
dience. Public  happiness,  therefore,  is  the  only  motive 
why  authority  should  be  exercised,  and  why  the  will  of 
the  legislature  should  be  obeyed  and  respected.  When 
laws  prove  to  be  contrary  to  public  good^  or  partialin  their 


15 

operation,  Ihcy  should  cease  to  beiir  the  sacrcirdiarac- 
ter  of  laws,  and  have  no  respect  paid  to  them. 

The  pulilic  felicily  is,  nevertheless,  so  inscperai)]y  con- 
nected \vit!i  the  observance  of  order,  that  it  is  advisa- 
ble, nay  necessary,  that  the  ruled  bear  patiently,  a 
temporary  inconvenience,  and  pursue  the  most  gentle 
means  for  the  redress  of  grievances;  yet  there  is  such  a 
thing  ar,  a  laudable  jealousy  on  the  part  of  the  govern- 
ed, ^vhicli  should  keep  pace  with  the  situation  of  publie 
aiTairs,  which  aims  at  an  inviolate  enjoyment  of  our  na- 
tural and  political  riglits.  Every  good  citizen  will  not  be 
incessant,  but  prudent,  in  his  endeavors  to  seek  a  happy 
change  in  every  thing  that  has  not  a  benign  innuenec 
on  public  happiness,  and  none  should  be  more  vigilant, 
ready,  or  willing  for  s'uch  a  change,  than  men  bearing 
authority  who  have  poAver  to  rectify  wlir^t  is  improper. 
They  should  anticipate  wrongs  and  administer  redress 
when  any  public  measure  has  taken  place  which  is  in- 
eompatable  with  public  good.  Is  it  not  for  (his  very 
end  that  power  is  delegated  to  them  ?  Men.  of  true 
wisdom  are  always'sensibie  of  their  own  fallibility — the 
guardians  of  the  laws  should  be  first  to  discover  their 
defects.  It  is  no  disgrace  to  any  government  to  recti- 
fy abuses;  it  is,  on  the  contrary,  a  circumstance  noi 
allogetber  honorable  to  the  imdcrstanding,  or  thehearts 
of  rulers,  if  grievances  are  continued  ;  but  there  is  no 
epithet  strong  enough  to  convey  the  idea  of  detestation 
and  abhorrence  wliicii  that  government  deserves  which 
persists  in  increasing  and  perpetuating  them. 

The  right  of  acquiring  and  holding  property  obtain- 
ed by  virtuous  industry,  free  from  the  invasion  of  others, 
is  next  to  that  of  liberty,  the  most  sscred.  Any  in- 
fraction of  (his  right  o'Jght  to  be  immediately  repaired 
and  (he  injured  restored  tothefullenjoymentof  thisright. 


16 

and  the  transgressor  punished  in  exact  proportion  to  the     > 
injury  done. 

From  what  has  heen  said,  we  may  form  ideas  of  the 
justice  of  laws,  and  the  duties  of  government,  in  carry- 
ing those  laws  into  execution,  so  as  to  render  equul  justice 
to  every  man. 

But  it  does  so  happen  that  government  does  not  al- 
ways ahide  hy  tiiose  maxims.  They  lavish  favors  with 
an  un^sparing  hand  on  one  part  of  the  community  and 
witliliold  theni  from  the  other  part.  They  grant  to 
hankers  the  power  to  pass  paper  instead  of  gohl  and 
silvc!' — thereby  to  increase  their  money,  to  any  amount 
they  please,  hy  their  notes.  They  are  therehy  enabled 
to  ohtaia  a  great  deal  more  than  their  proportion  of  tho 
products  of  society,  and  the  other  members  of  society 
must  go  without  them — hence  arises  their  poverty  and 
misery.  The  inequality  in  the  laws  is  a  perversion  of 
the  laws  of  nature,  and  totally  repugnant  to  the  princi- 
ples of  equity,  which  nature  ordained  for  the  harmony 
of  her  w.orks.  The'  folJowing  considerations  may  fur-^ 
thcr  elucidate  the  subject.  It  is  a  fact,  than  which  no- 
thing is  more  certain,  that  the  prices  of  every  article  of 
commerce  is  determined  by  the  quantity  of  money  in 
circulation.  Suppose,  for  instance,  that  the  city  of 
Kew-York  contains  twenty  thou'^.jd  Fiimilies,  with  an 
income  of  one  dollar  per  day  each  ;  it  must  he  evident 
that  the  vviiole  amount  purcliased  on  any  one  day  could 
not  exceed  twenty  thousand  dollars,  for  the  purchasers 
could  pay  no  more  money  than  they  had.  The  sellers 
couhi  therefore  'get  ro  more  ;  the  quantity  of  money 
determines  the  pi'ices,  and  the  money  buys  all.  The 
amount  of  eve4"y  day's  sale  would  he  twenty  thousand 
dollars,  (Sundays  exeeptcd)  :  the  whole  amount  of  the 
year,  would  he  about  six  millions  two  hundred  and  sixty 
thousand  dollars.     But  suppose  the  quantity  of  money 


17 

lo  be  varied,  and  each,  family  lo  Lave  three  dollars,  in- 
stead of  one,  per  day  ;  then  the  prices  of  the  articles 
sold  on  any  one  day  would  be  trebled  ;  they  would  sell 
for  sixty  thousand  instead  of  twenty,  and  the  whole 
amount  of  the  year  would  be  about  eighteen  millions 
seven  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  dollars.  If  the 
quantity  of  commodities  in  the  market  remained  the 
same,  the  prices  must  have  experienced  a  three-fold  in- 
crease ,:  for  what  other  use  can  be  made  of  money  than 
to  purchase  commodilies.  If  the  increase  of  the  one 
does  not  keep  pace  with  the  other,  the  effect  is  sure- — 
either  the  prices  of  commodities  must  rise  or  the  mo- 
ney remain  useless. 

The  experience  of  the  whole  civilized  world  demon- 
strates that  the  quantity  of  money  in  circulation  pro- 
duces the  effects  befoi'c-stated.  I  would  ask,  what 
other  reason  can  be  assigned,  for  the  great  increase  of 
prices  of  the  productions  of  society  in  Europe,  immedi- 
ately after  the  discovery  of  America,  than  that  it  was 
the  immense  influx  of  the  precious  metals  plundered  from 
the  Spaniards  ?  Every  man  that  knows  any  thing,  knows 
that  the  prices,  or  raise  of  the  market,  depends  on  the 
quantity  of  money  which  is  brought  into  it.  Money  is 
like  every  other  article  of  commerce,  when  there  is  an 
abundance  of  any  article,  it  will  be  low  ;  when  scarce, 
it  will  be  sought  after  and  be  high.  These  circum- 
stances alone,  determaie  the  value  of  gold  or  precious 
stones  ;  the  diamond  would  be  less  valuable  than  mar- 
ble, and  gold  than  iron,  were  they  obtained  in  as  great 
abundance. 

Why  do  we  complain  of  the  high  prices  of  provi- 
sions ?  It  cannot  be  in  consequence  of  scarcity  that 
prevents  us  from  having  as  great  a  shai^  as  our 
wants  require.  If  we  could  increase  the  quantity  of 
our  money  at  pleasure^  we  would  be  able  to  obtain  as 


groat  a  quantity  and  variety  as  we  oould  wish  ;  but  a^ 
there  is  bat  a  IJinited  quantity  to  increase  our  share,  it 
toiust  be  taken  fi  om  some  other  person,  who  surely 
wishes  to  retain  what  quantity  he  has,  so  that  it  be- 
comes impossible.  If* every  man  had  it  in  his  power  to 
inerease  his  money  at  pleasure,  every  man  would  keep 
paee  with  his  neighbor  ;  this  would  be  the  same  as  bid- 
ding at  auetion — the  price  would  rise  in  proportion  to 
the  money  otfered,  as  was  the  case  with  butter,  pork, 
&'.  son.e  few  years  past.  The  value  of  money  will  al- 
ways be  in  proj)ortion  to  its  quantity.  It  frequently 
happens  thiit  those  who  increase  the  quantity  of  their 
money,  do  not  always  ini'rease  their  consumption; 
but  this  does  not  alter  the  general  effect  of  such 
inereas*; ;  no  man  locks  up  his  money  or  buries  it 
iif  these  days.  He  either  uses  it  himself  or  lets  it  to 
another  ;  the  borrower  would  not  take  it  if  he  did  not 
intend  to  make  use  of  it — and  as  the  only  use  of  money 
is  lb  purchase  commodities  or  labor,  and  that  part  paid 
for  labor  goes  to  the  purchase  of  commodities,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  it  roust  ultimately  ei^jue  to  market  ;  through 
tv ha tev^T  number  of  intermediate  hands  it  may  pass,  it 
must  produce  the  same  effect,  of  adding  to  the  quantity^ 
as  if  the  fabricator  had  increased  his  own  consumption. 
If  it  is  admitted  that  the  issuing  of  bank  notes  has 
enormously  increased  the  money  circulation  of  this 
country  ;  it  must  also  be  admitted,  that  this  increased 
circulation  has  been  the  means,  and  real  cause  of  in- 
creasing the  rates  of  provisions  to  their  present  exorbi- 
tant prices  ;  for  the  former  is  not  more  evident  than  the 
latter,  and  such  being  the  case,  it  must  be  no  less  evi- 
dent that  the  bankers  rob  every  other  man  in  society, 
by  ejrculuting  their  notes,  the  same  as  they  would  by 
taxing  them,  or  by  stealing  their  money  out  of  their 
pockets  ! 


19 

What  difference  can  there  be  between  inhanciRt*  the 
price  of  my  bxead  and  lessening  the  value  of  uij  labo?'. 
A  man  sustains  the  same  iojmwj  bj  having  the  value  of 
his  money  reduced,  as  hy  having  a  part  of  it  stolen. 
But  the  iniquity  of  hanking  may  be  rendered  still  more 
obvious  by  the  following  i^onsiderations. 

That  every  man  will  be  able  to  obtain  a  share  of  the 
productions  of  society,  acfording  to  the  quantily  of  his 
money,  is  most  certain.  Therefore,  as  tlie  amount  of 
his  money  is  increast^d,  he  will  increase  his  share  of  the 
fruits  of  labor ;  and  as  the  fruits  of  industry,  in  any 
country,  are  limited,  what  is  added  to  one  man's  share 
must  be  taken  from  another  ;  consequently,  the  increas- 
ing the  quantity  of  money  in  one  part  of  ftociity,  must 
produce  the  same  effect  as  taking  it  from  the  other.— 
The  banker  having  it  in  his  power  to  increase  the  qyin- 
tity  of  his  money,  at  pleasure,  it  has  the  same  effect  as 
taking  so  much  from  the  other  part  of  the  community. 
Suppose  that  the  whole  productions  of  society  were  di- 
vided into  one  hundred  thousand  parts,  among  the  in- 
habitants, in  such  a  proportion  that  a  day  laborer 
should  have  one  part,  and  he  that  has  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars should  have  ten  parts,  and  every  other  per&on  a 
certain  number  of  parts,  according  to  his  i^icome.  If, 
then,  a  number  of  these  laborers  were  to  increase  their 
money,  by  bank  notes,  to  ten  thousand  dollars  each, 
they  would  be  enabled  to  procure,  or  command,  ten 
times  the  quantity  they  did  before.  But  where  are  the 
additional  parts  to  come  from  ?  must  not  a  new  division 
take  place,  and  a  portion  be  taken  from  every  one  of  the 
parts,  into  which  the  commodities  were  before  divided, 
in  order  to  make  up  the  additional  number  ?  Most  cer- 
tainly. 

Therefore,  if  every  man  i!i  society  had  been  robbed 
of  a  part  of  his  money,  he  would  not  have  sustained  ^ 


20 

greater  injury.  If  the  additional  sum  had  been  fabri-f 
eated  by  those  who  had  the  greatest  share  before,  in- 
stead of  the  laborers,  the  effect  would  be  exactly  the 
same,  though  perhaps  more  injurious  to  the  poorer 
class. 

If  the  money  be  increased,  it  is  imraaferial  whose 
possession  it  is  in  ;  the  property  must  be  divided  in*o 
an  additional  number  of  parts,  to  correspond  with  the 
additional  quantity  of  money. 

Therefore,  those  men  who  increase  their  money  by 
issuing  bank  notes,  might,  with  as  much  justice,  put 
their  hands  into  their  neighbors  pockets  and  steal  a  part 
of  their  money. 

It  is  a  fact,  in  which  all  men  will  agree>  that  every 
member  of  society  has  a  right  to  a  share  of  the  produc- 
tions of  society,  according  to  his  industry  or  mo- 
ney. But  when  a  part  of  the  society  are  permitted 
to  increase  their  money  at  pleasure,  by  issuing  paper, 
instead  of  gold  and  silver,  how  can  he  enjoy  that  right? 
The  banker  makes,  out  of  one  thousaiid  dollars,  ten 
thousand  dollars  if  he  pleases. 

Again,  we  will  suppose  that  all  the  productions  of  a 
country  are  divided  into  two  equal  parts,  and  that  the 
inhabitants  of  this  country  are  equally  divided,  and 
each  part  have  an  equal  property ;  then  suppose  one  part  to 
double  the  quantity  of  their  money  by  issuing  bank 
notes  ;  then  that  part  of  society  would  be  able  to  obtain 
two-thirds,  instead  of  one  half,  of  the  productions  ; 
consequently  the  other  part  could  have  only  one  third 
instead  of  one  half.  If  the  fust  part  were  to  treble 
their  money,  then  they  wouhl  be  able  to  obtain  three- 
fourths  of  the  productions,  and  tlie  other  only  one- 
fourth,  and  «ontinue  in  that  proportion,  according  to 
the  increase  of  money  in  that  part  of  society.  We 
ivill  further  suppose  tliat  all  the  purchasers  in  market 


Si 

are  one  liimdred,  and  eaeli  of  them  conies  with  an  equal 
sum  of  money  ;  then  each  ought  to  have  an  equal  share 
of  all  the  commodities  ;  hut  if  fifty  of  them  are  hankers 
and.  find  they  can  make  a  profit,  they  douhle  their  mo- 
ney hy  issuing  their  notes;  they  can  then  purchase  two 
thirds  of  ail  the  commodities — consequently,  the  other 
fifty,  who  are  no  hankers,  can  have  but  one  third,  or 
one  third  less  than  they  would  have  had,  if  there  had 
been  no  bankers,  or  if  they  had  not  increased  their  mo- 
ney. 

The  bankers,  therefore,  might  as  well  have  robbed 
them,  at  the  beginning,  of  one  half  of  their  money,  for, 
in  that  case,  they  would  have  been  able  to  purchase  one 
third  of  the  commodities,  instead  of  one  half,  and  they 
could  purchase  no  more  after  the  bankers  had  doubled 
their  money  by  their  notes. 

The  whole  nation  are  purchasers  in  the  market ;  it  is^ 
therefore,  clear,  that  the  bankers  rob  every  other  part 
of  the  community  or  nation,  as  certainly,  by  issuing 
their  notes,  but  with  more  ease  and  safety,  as  by  steal- 
ing or  by  force,  compellint,*  them  to  give  up  a  part  of 
their  property  or  labor,  and  that  abandonment  of  prin- 
ciple in  legislatures,  in  authorizing  the  fraud,  mighty 
with  the  same  propriety,  authorize  force. 

Gold  and  silver,  as  has  been  before  shown,  are  the 
productions  of  nature  ;  possessing,  in  a  supereminent  de- 
gree, all  the  qualities  requisite  for  such  an  important 
purpose,  as  the  standard  of  justice  in  commercial  ex- 
change of  property.  As  such  a  meuium,  it  has  been 
used  from  time  as  remote  as  history  reaches,  and  was 
taken  under  the  direction  and  guardianship  of  the  ru- 
lers of  society,  and  coined  into  money  at  A^gos,  nearly 
nine  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  iEra.  Their 
qualities  and  weight  were  determined  by  <]ie  nicest 
principles  of  equity.     AU  nations  of  the  cai  lU  hinebcen 


extremely  careful  that  their  money  should  not  be  adul- 
terated ;  they  have  uniformly  punished  counterfeiters 
vi'iih  death,  so  that  every  man  should  be  secure  in  his 
right  to  the  productions  of  society,  in  proportion  (o  his 
money  or  his  labor.  Hence  it  became  the  true  repre- 
sentative of  labor. 

But  what  is  the  use  now  of  their  wise  and  honest 
laws  ?  while  particular  men  are  permitted  to  encrcase 
their  money  by  means  of  bank  notes  ?  Does  it  require 
more  labor  to  fabricate  a  note  than  to  coin  false  money  I 
a  counterfeit  dollar  cannot  possibly  be  fabricated,  in  a 
state  of  perfection,  sufficient  to  make  it  pass,  short  of 
twenty-five  cents,  in  precious  or  pure  metal  ;  whereasj 
the  banker  will  fabricate  one  hundred  dollars  with  less 
cxpence  ;  do  not,  then,  the  bankers  enjoy  the  benefit  of 
labor  and  the -fruit  of  fraud,  without  laboring  them'- 
selves,  or  running  any  risk  of  that  punishment  which 
fraud  deserves  ?  They  rob  the  laborer  as  effectually 
of  the  fruits  of  his  industry  as  the  coiner  could  do.  It 
has  been  remarked,  that  the  coiner  receives  immedi- 
ately the  whole  amount  of  all  the  pieces  he  puts  in  cir- 
culation, whereas  the  bankers  receive  only  a  part ;  but 
it  will  appear,  by  a  strict  examination  of  the  case,  that 
the  difference  is  by  no  means  in  favor  of  the  coiner,  on 
the  scale  of  profit,  but  the  reverse. 

It  was  stated  by  Gov.  Tompkins,  in  his  speech,  at 
the  opening  of  the  session  of  the  legislature  in  1812, 
that  if  the  bank  capital,  then  about  to  be  solicited,  was 
granted,  in  addition  to  what  had  been  before  granted,  it 
would  enable  the  bankers  to  contract  debts,  or  in  other 
words,  legally  to  issue  their  notes  to  an  amount  sixteen 
times  greater  than  the  whole  specie  capital  of  the  state. 

Although  the  immovable  patriotism  of  that  maD> 
seconded  by  a  few  worthy  adherents,  at  that  time  pre- 
vented the  grant,  it  was  beyond  their  power  to  temove 


JS3  • 

tfic  golden  cbaFm ;  it  may  be  seen,  by  tbe  records  of 
subsequent  legislatures,  that  bank  capital  has  been  ex- 
tended to  an  amount  equal  to  what  was  then  solicited^ 
This  being  the  fact,  a  dollar,  in  bank  notes,  cannot  be 
i^orth  more  than  six  pence,  op  one  sixteenth  of  its  no- 
mina^  sirm  ;  all  above  six  pence  must  be  ideal  and  to* 
tally  visionary.  The  expense  of  materials  and  fabrica- 
tion cannot  exceed  one  cent  on  a  dollar,  and  the  banker 
i*eeeives,  annually,  about  ten  cents  interest,  at  common 
discount,  for  seven  pence  principal,  and  as  he  can  vend 
his  paper  without  restraint  or  risk,  it  is  evident  that  the 
advantage  of  the  banker  is  vastly  greater  than  that  of 
the  coiner,  for  the  banker,  in  reality,  realizes  the  whole 
amount  and  more,  tbe  moment  it  passes  from  his  hands, 
or  at  least  in  one  year,  for  a  redemption  in  specie  gene- 
rally, at  more  than  six  pence  on  a  dollar,  is  an  impossi- 
bility. 

As  the  bankers  of  Gloucester,  in  Massachusetts,  set 
an  example,  some  years  ago,  which  has  been  followed 
by  Messrs.  M»Keon  &  Cheesman,  in  this  state,  for  the 
redemption  of  their  notes  ;  the  facjility  and  convenience 
of  which  will,  undoubtedly,  recommend  it  to  the  adop- 
tion of  others,  whenever  a  general  demand  sliall  be 
made. 

But  whatever  difference  there  may  be  in  the  profits, 
the  injnry,  to  the  public,  is  the  same ;  for,  provided  an 
additional  sura  is  brought  to  market,  whether  the  fabri- 
cators reap  all  the  profit  at  once,  or  from  time  to  lime, 
or  whether  they  share  it  themselves  or  divide  it  with 
associates,  a  certain  proportionate  rise  must  jfiecessarily 
take  place  in  the  prices  of  the  necessary  articles  of  life 
or  trade,  and  though  the  banker  should  make  but  1000 
dollars,  by  tbe  emitting  10,000  dollars  in  bank  notes, 
yet  the  whole  10,000  dollars  is  brought  to  market — the 
prices  of  commodities  will  be  raised  in  the  same  propor- 


^4 

^ioii  as  ihe  ten  thousand  dollars  bears  to  all  the  money 
before  in  the  muiket,  or  in  circulation,  and,  of  course, 
the  other  members  of  society  must  be  as  much  deprived  of 
their  properly  or  the  produce  of  their  labor  as  they  would 
have  been  by  the  circulation  of  an  equal  sum  of  counter- 
feit money.  In  fact,  the  whole  sum  of  bank  notes  are 
a  deception  ;  they  are  false  and  a  counterfeit — and  that 
majority  in  legislatures  who  have  authorized  them,  a 
band  of  mercenary  swindlers,  bought  in  and  leagued 
with  individual  companies  to  rob  the  industrious,  poor 
and  fatten  on  the  spoil. 

Is  it,  then,  surprising,  that  the  laws  should  regard 
seemingly  different  professions,  so  very  differently,  that 
while  it  sends  the  poor  man  to  the  state-prison  for  life., 
(who  may  be  actually  in  distressing  want,)  it  per- 
mits the  rich  man,  or  banker,  to  fabricate  millions  with, 
impunity  !  Tt  may,  perhaps,  be  asserted,  that  there  is 
a  farther  difference  between  banking  and  coining,  that 
the  one  robs  the  individual,  and  the  other  the  public  at 
large.  Admit  it  to  be  so  ;  sure  it  is  not  saying  muck 
in  favor  of  the  banker. 

But  it  is  by  no  means  always  the  case  ;  for  the  mo- 
ney of  a  skilful  coiner  circulates  in  the  same  manner, 
and  produces  the  same  effects,  as  bank  notes  do  ;  and 
whenever  the  bank  fails,  the  individual  is  robbed  as  well 
as  the  public.  Ask  those  who  hold  Gloucester,  M*Keon 
&  Cheesman- s  notes,  and  let  their  individual  answers 
settle  the  question.  Failures  of  banks  frequently  hap- 
pen, and  the  calamity  may  become  general,  for  their 
solvency  depends  solely  on  the  confidence  that  is  placed 
on  them  ;  the  least  suspicion  would  infallibly  run  every 
Lank  in  the  country  ;  in  this  respect  the  analogy  be- 
tween  bank  paper  and  counterfeit  coin  is  strongly  mark- 
ed.   As  long  as  false  coin  is  not  suspected,  it  passes  as 


S5 

llie  true  ;  but  (he  moment  suspicion  arises  the  cheat  is 
at  an  end,  and  the  possessors  most  he  loosers.  This  is 
exactly  the  case  with  hankers  ;  general  suspicion  would 
overset  them  all  :  aod  more  iudividual  injury  is  annu- 
ally sustained  by  the  total  failure  of  some  banks,  and 
the  depreciation  of  the  notes  of  others,  than  has  been 
sustained  by  false  coin  since  the  settlement  of  America. 

Of  what  consequence  are  laws  against  monopolizers 
and  furestallers.  The  law  establishing  a  bank  is  a  law 
establishing  a  monopoly,  granting  to  bankers  a  privi- 
lege to  monopolize  the  very  sinues  of  all  commerce,  to 
take  all  legitimate  money  out  f>f  circulation,  and  to  sub- 
stitute false  promises,  expressed  on  scraps  of  paper,  in 
its  place,  and  may  also  circulate  ten.  or  twenty  times  the 
amount  in  their  notes  Ihat  they  have  specie  to  pay  ; 
they  may  thereby  receive  a  hundred  per  cent,  on  their 
Vf^'dl  capits^l,  instead  of  seven,  whieh  is  lawful  interest. 

'Wh^t  is  the  use  of  laws  against  monopoly,  but  to  pre- 
vent individuals  from  engrossing  the  necessaries  of  life, 
^nd  thereby  compelling  the  necessitous  to  pay  an  exor- 
bitant price.  It  is  in  consequence  of  the  banker  beip^ 
enabled  to  emit  large  sums  in  paper,  that  larpi  <iums 
can  be  obtained  for  speculation  aiul  monopoly,  ^jhI  it  is 
only  making  paper  pass  for  gold  and  silver  tbat  large 
^ums  can  be  obtained.  There  is  but  a  limited  quantity 
of  gold  and  silver  in  any  counti»y  5  it  cannot  be  increas- 
ed at  pleasure,  to  suit  the  convenience  of  the  speculator^ 
as  the  paper  can. 

While  this  is  the  caid  it  will  be  impossible  to  pre- 
vent fliQUoi><>l^  ;  so  long  as  we  permit  men  to  increase 
the  quantity  of  their  money  by  means  of  paper,  all  ai*- 
ticles  of  the  lirst  necessiry  wi-l  bear  an  exorbitant  price. 
In  vain  are  the  fruitfulness  of  our  seasons  ;  in  vain  are 
the  bounties  of  nature  overflowing  our  country.     The 

4< 


^6 

pious  and  thankful  Lcart  v/hicli  lias  been  pouring  out 
Us  gi'iilituile  to  the  Beneficent  Dispcnsei^  of  all  good, 
lor  causing  the  earth  to  overflow  with  fruitfulness,  and 
felicitating  itself  with  the  cheeri»;g  hope  that  a  com- 
fortable supply  miglit  fail  to  his  lot,  which  the  pretend- 
ed scarcity  of  former  seasons  prevented  liim  from' en- 
joying. But,  alas!  the  avidity  ofihe  monopolizer  is 
sharpened,  and  increases  with  the  quantity  of  produc- 
tions, and  the  hopes  of  the  labourer  is  disappointed. 
Every  necessary  of  life  is  as  far  beyond  his  reach  as 
ever  ;  the  fruits  of  his  labor  must  first  pass  through  the 
hands  of  the  monopolizer,  to  be  dealt  out  to  him  in 
cjuantities  proportionate  to  his  money,  at  fifty  or  a  hun- 
dred per  cent.  advance.=^ 

*  To  consider  merely  the  present  order  of  human  society, 
it  is  evident  that  the  first  offence  must  have  been  his  who 
began  a  monopoly,  and  took  advantage  of  the  -weakness  of 
his  neighbors,  to  secure  certain  exclusive  privileges  lo  him- 
self. 

The  man.  on  the  other  hand,  who  determined  to  put 
an  end  to  this  monopoly,  and  who  peremptorily  demanded 
what  was  superfluous  to  the  possessor,  and  would  be  of  the 
greatest  benefit  to  himself,  appeared  to  his  own  mind  to  be 
merely  avenging  the  violated  laws  of  nature  and  justice. — 
The  plausibleness  of  this  reasoning,  beyond  a  doubt,  is  the 
original  cause  of  all  the  crimes  in  the  world.  The  fruitful 
source  of  crimes  consists  in  this  circumstance — one  man's 
possessing  in  abundance,  of  that  which  another  is  destitute, 
and  we  must  change  the  nature  of  mind  before  we  can  pre- 
vent it  from  being  powerfully  influenced  by  this  circum- 
stance, when  brought  strongly  hgjme  to^  its  preceptions  by 
the  nature  of  its  situation.  Man  must  cease  to  have  senses; 
the  pleasures  of  appetite  and  variety  must  cease  to  gratify, 
before  he  can  look  tamely  upon  the  monopoly  of  these  plea- 
sures. He  must  cease  to  have  a  sense  of  justice,  before  he 
can  clearly  and  fully  approve  of  this  accursed  prostitution  of 
legislative  power,  which  foster*  and  supports  such  a  scene 
of  superfluity  and  distress. 


It  is  evident,  thereibre,  that  the  banking  system  rcii- 
tlers  the  laws  against  monopoly  equally  ineffectual  with 
those  against  eountcrleiiing  ami  usury.  Thus  we  pull 
down  with  c:r own  hands  the  only  partition  and  baniei' 
that  divided  and  secured  every  man  in  the  frui(s  of  in- 
dustry ;  under  such  an  order  of  things,  we  might  he 
led  to  conclude  that  laws  are  made  rather  to  regulate, 
systeniise  and  encourage,  than  to  suppress  fraud  and 
robbery. 

We  are  frequently  insulted  by  being  told,  by  ouv 
Avooden-headed  afld  rotten-hearted  legislators,  that 
the  robberies  committed' by  bank  notes  differ  from  all 
others,  that  they  tend  to  enrich  the  nation.  Admittiag 
that  to  be  the  case,  (thoirgh  palpably  false)  and  that 
such  a  thing  were  desirable,  still  it  is  not  less  an  evil 
to  them  who  are  robbed  of  their  property,  or  of  the 
fruits  of  their  labor. 

Enriching  the  nation,  as  it  is  called,  is  by  no  means  de- 
sirable. Such  a  wish  can  only  originate  in  narrovy, 
perverted  minds,  who  wish  to  represent  the  nation  in 
their  own  characters,  and  obliterate  the  history  of  all 
others,  and  by  forming  their  judgment  by  the  deceptive 
appearance  that  riches  produce.  Riches  appear  to 
bring  many  conveniences  to  those  who  possess  them  ; 
they  therefore  conclude,  that  a  nation  increasing  in 
wealth  must,  consequently,  increase  in  happiness,  than 
which  nothing  can  be  more  false  and  absurd,  since  it  is 
as  impossible  for  one  part  of  society  to  grow  rich  with- 
out making  the  other  part  poor,  as  for  one  arm  of  a  ba- 
lance to  be  raised  without  depressing  the  other.  Had 
all  men  an  equal  property,  al]  would  have  an  equal 
share  of  the  productions  of  society,  and  all  would  be 
obliged  to  labor  alike,  of  course  there  would  be  neither 
rich  nor  poor.  Riches,  therefore,  is  merely  a  compa- 
rative term.    The  rich  arc  only  those  who  can  com- 


S8 

iiiand  a  greater  share  of  the  productions  of  society, 
than  falls  to  the  share  of  the  common  people  ;  and  as 
the  number  of  the  wealth v  are  kicreased,  so  will  the 
poverty  of  the  others  increase.  In  exact  jjropottion  as 
the  luxuries  of  one  part  of  the  community  are  increas- 
ed, so  must  the  comforts  of  the  other  part  be  diminish- 
ed, and  if  it  does  not  tend  to  lessen  the  number  of  in- 
habitants, it  augments  the  number  of  poor.  I  know  a 
town,  in  the  vicinity  of  New-York,  that,  twenty  years 
ago,  had  but  one  person  in  it  who  required  any  assis.- 
tance  from  tlie  public  ;  the  same  town,  though  very  lit- 
tle increased  in  population,  has  increased  thfeir  poor  an 
hundred  fold.  No  person  who  will  take  the  trouble  ta 
examine  the  Poor-House  books  and  Soup  House  bill?, 
and  other  institutions  for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  will  en- 
tertain a  doubt  that  the  increase  of  poverty  and  distress 
has  keptpftce  with  our  riches,  or  paper  money. 

In  tlie  New-F>ngland  states  the  effects  are  the  most 
conspicuous,  because  they  are  more  populoufe,  and  their 
paper  systems,  heretofore,  far  the  most  numerous ;  be- 
sides the  increase  of  their  poor,  thousands  are  couipel- 
lod  to  emigrate  to  the  western  wilderness  in  a  most  for- 
lorn condition,  to  make  room  for  their  more  ti^ealfhy 
neighbor^.  In  fact,  an  amount  equal  to  tlie  whole  ac- 
tive capital  of  the  states  is  vested  in  banking  companies, 
turnpike  companies,  or  some  other  chartered  compa- 
nies, and  the  whole  of  them  leagued  against  all  honestj — 
many  of  the  judges  of  their  courts  openly  engage  in 
shaving  notes.  But  we  need  not  go  abroad  for  exam- 
ples of  knavery,  or  the  effects  of  pape;*  money  ;  do  We 
not  sec  a  considerable  part  of  this  city  taken  up  by 
those  who  have  thus  enriched  themselves,  from  wlueh 
mechanics  and  other  useful  citizens  are  driven  forever? 
Such  has  been  the  necessary  consequence  of  sufferiUg 
men  to  increase  their  money,  by  means  of  bank  notes 


and  similar  i^eails,  ih^it  they  have  been  (hereby  Ena- 
bled to  erigroee  so  largie  a  share  of  the  pvoductloins  of 
society,  as  have  either  rt^dueed  those  to  beggary,  ot* 
forced  them  to  eiiftigrate,  Wlio  have  had  no  sueh  iiiea^s 
of  inereasJng  their  incomes. 

The  effects  Of  this  accursed  system,  of  making  paper 
pass  for  goUl  and  silver,  has  been  so  artfully  disgnis^^d, 
that  little  attention  has  been  paid  to  it  by  the  communi- 
ty at  large.  Tlic  evils,  thence  arising,  have  becj;  de- 
signedly attributed  to  other  causes,  purposely  to  feoti- 
eeal  the  real  ones. 

In  Englamlit  has  been  attributed  to  the  taxes,  atrdih 
this  country  to  commerce,  and  that  commeree  has  been 
the  caose  o'f  the  great  rise  in  the  prices  of  the  produce 
tiotis  of  society  ;  bat  on  examination  it  will  be  found  a 
falsehood. 

"Were  all  taxes  levied  on  income  direietly,  they  cfdtiltl 
produce  fto  effect  whatever  on  the  prrifees  of  comiiiddr- 
ties  ;  for,  as  the  pt-ife^s  inust  depend  on  the  demand, 
and  ^s  every  man's  demand  rests  with  hi^  income,  the 
\Vhofe  demand,  or  the  prices  6f  all  thft  Coitimodrties, 
must  likewise  depend  dn  the  sum  of  all  the  ineotttes.  A 
fax,  therefore,  merely  alters  th6  distribution,  without 
irhering  tlie  stim  of  the  income  of  a  state,  as  is  the  caste 
with  a  dirfec'ttax ;  or  incohle  could  nevet'  vary  the  pric- 
es of  commodities,  nor  the  demand  for  cotninerce  could 
nevier  rai^e  the  pi*ieeii.  Cb'nsidef  fot*  a  moment  the 
staftfe  bfdrir  commerce ;  Europeans  rival  (is  in  our  ow'n 
markets,  iti  some  of  the  staple  cbmmoditle^  of  our  oWn 
sclJi.  ilie  ithtnense  quantities  of  pork,  beef,  butter,  &c. 
WWich  are  anttuairy  imported  from  Euro()e,  and  sold  in 
our  markets,  proves  the  falsehood  of  tbat  allegation. 
I'he  rate  of  the  market,  as  has  been  befot*e  observed, 
does  not  depend  upon  the  nnmber  of  |:v'ohA^ers,  but  6n 
the  qttantily  of  thdr  taoncy,  wliile  tliut  and  the  qnatiti- 


81) 

ty  of  commodities  remain  the  same,  witliout  vaiiation ; 
the  prices  will  inevitably  be  the  same,  whether  the  pur- 
chasers be  few  or  many  in  number,  or  however  une- 
qually the  money  may  be  divided  among  them. 

If,  for  example,  the  number  ef  buyers  in  the  market 
amounted  to  one  hundred,  with  twenty  shillings  each, 
all  the  commodities  must  be  sold  for  one  hundred 
pounds.  If,  instead  of  one  hundred,  with  one  pound 
each,  fifty  had  gone  with  two  pounds  each,  or  if  a  tax 
had  taken  five  shillings  from  one  fifty  and  given  it  to 
the  other  lifty,  it  would  make  no  alteration  in  the  prices 
of  commodities  in  the  market,  for  the  sellers  could  only 
get  the  hundred  pounds. 

Suppose,  that  in  a  nation  where  all  the  incomes 
amounted  to  one  hundred  millions,  the  gpvernment 
should  levy  a  tax  of  ten  millions  ;  it  would  be  evident 
that  every  man's  income  would  be  lessened  one  tenth. 
If,  therefore,  the  quantities  of  commodities  remained 
as  before  the  tax,  the  prices  must  have  fallen  one  tenth, 
or  the  commodities  remain  unsold  ;  but  if  the  ten  mil- 
lions taken  from  the  whole,  were  added  to  the  incomes 
of  a  few,  the  whole  amount,  or  aggregate  income,  would 
be  restored  again  to  one  hundred  millions,  and  con- 
sequently the  prices  of  commodities  would  remain  the 
same  as  they  were  before  the  tax  was  levied,  but  could 
not  possibly  be  increased. 

The  prices  of  commodities,  therefore,  can  be  increas- 
ed only  by  indirect  taxes,  which,  by  being  levied  on  ar- 
ticles of  consumption,  must  create  a  fictitious  increase 
in  the  national  income,  in  the  same  manner  that  bank 
notes  do  ;  for  as  taxes,  raised  in  tais  way,  do  not  re- 
duce men's  income  nominally,  the  sum  of  all  the  in- 
comes in  the  state  is  increased  equal  to  the  amount  of 
taxes.  It  is  not  observing  this  effect  of  indirect  taxes, 
which  made  some  men  in  England  imagine,  that  in- 


31 

creasing  the  taxes  increased  the  national  riches,  and 
others  have  asserted,  that  as  they  increased  the  national 
debt  they  increased  their  ability  to  pay  it ;  but,  as  a 
nation,  tliey  were  neither  enriched  or  impoverished  by 
taxation  ;  for  as  the  real  riches  of  a  nation  consists 
alone  in  its  productions,  and  while  they  remain  the 
same,  without  eitlier  increase  or  diminution,  'it  cannot 
be  said  to  ^row  either  richer  or  poorer,  whatever  may 
he  the  fluctuation  of  the  nominal  income,  or  whatever 
alteration  may  take  place  in  its  distribution. 

Great  pains  have  been  and  still  are  taken,  to  prove 
that  tlie  landed  and  monied  interests  are  inseparable, 
and  that  promoting  the  one  necessarily  advances  the 
other  ;  but  this  is  certainly  an  untruth,  for  there  can- 
not be  but  a  certain  quantity  of  wealth,  power  and  eon- 
sequenco,  in  any  state  or'nation,  whatever  the  numbers 
may  be  among  whom  that  power  is  divided,  or  whatever 
may  be  the  amount  of  wealth,  it  is  certain  that  whatev- 
er one  party  gains  the  other  must  lose. 

Suppose  that  all  the  lands  in  these  United  States  were 
rented  for  a  term  of  twenty^one  years,  for  twenty  mil- 
lions annually ;  when  the  revenues  from  money  amount- 
ed to  exactly  the  same  sum,  then  would  not  the  landed 
and  monied  interest,  or  the  monied  men,  have  the  same 
income,  or  an  equal  share  of  all  the  productions  of  the 
country,  and  an  equal  share  of  all  the  power  and  influ- 
ence arising  from  wealth  ?  Hut  if  the  monied  men 
were,  during  that  time,  to  increase  or  double  their  in- 
comes by  increasing  their  money,  by  means  of  bank 
notes,  at  the  end  of  twenty-one  years,  their  respective 
power  and  wealth  would  be  in  the  proportion  of  one  to 
two  ;  that  is,  the  landholders  would  have  one  third  less 
of  the  products  of  the  country,  and  also  one  third  less 
of  the  influence  in  society  ;  and  the  monied  men  one 
third  more  than  thev  had  at  the  commencement  of  the 


8S 

above  period.  Thence  it  is  ccHain  ibat  the  bankers, 
by  increasing  their  own  incomes,  Ihrougli  the  means  of 
kmk  notes,  do  absolutely  rob  Oje  landholders  of  a  part 
crftheir  power,  and  a  very  considerable  part  of  their  pro- 
perty.* It  >viJI  be  undoubtedly  alleged,  that  increasing 
the  circulation  of  money  raises  the  price  of  land,  and 
that  may  be  the  case  nominally,  but  not  really;  there 
may  be  more  money  given  in  exchange,  but  the  value 
will  iMimain  tb«  same  ;  for  vhat  is  the  reason  that  a 
greater  number  of  pieces  of  money  are  given  for  an  acre 
&f  land  now,  but  because  that  money  has  lost  so  much  of 
its  value. 

Therefoje,  although  the  landholder,  who  w is^ed  to 
sell  his  estate,  might  receive  two  Imndred  pounds,  in- 
stil of  one  hundred,  yet  as  the  money  had  lo3t  so 
much  of  its  relative  value,  in  employing  it  in  any  ptlu»,r 
way  except  in  paying  old  debts,  the  two  hundred  pounds 
will  purchase  no  more  of  the  products  of  society  than 
the  one  hundred  would  have  done  before  the  iucrease 
tciok  place,  and  even  if  the  real  value  of  land  should  be 
increased,  it  by  bo  means  indemnifies  bim  for  the  loss 
sustained  in  his  annual  rents ;  therefore,  the  €0ects  of 
an  increadcd  circulation,  in  raising  the  value  of  land, 
are  of  no  more  service  to  the  landlords  than  the  increase 
of  the  nominal  value  ;  for,  suppose  his  lauds  to  be  let 
for  a  term  of  twenty-one  years,  he  cannot  raise  his  rents 
until  the  end  of  that  term,  though  the  value  of  his  in- 
come has  been  gradually  decroa^iog  ;  forif^one  hundred 
dollars  would  have  gone  as  far  in  maintaining  a  family^ 
at  the  begimiing  of  Uie  term,  as  two  hundred  at  the  end 
of  the  term,  he  must  have  sustained  a  great  loss,  and 

*  Any  man  who  will  take,  the  tro.iible  to  examine  critical- 
ly, into  the  conduct  of  a  majority  of  the  legislature  of  this 
state,  in  1812,  will  be  satisfied  what  share  of  power  and  in- 
fluence bankers  have  with  our  legislative  auihorities. 


as 

alfbou^b  he  raises  liis  rent  at  the  expiration  of  tho 
term,  to  double  the  former  rent,  it  neither  makes  up  tho 
Joss  he  had  before  sustained,  nor  secures  him  a^inst 
further  loss  ;  while  the  circilating  medium  continues 
to  increase,  it  will  be  impossible  for  him  to  bring  his 
estate  at  par  wiih  the  increase  but  once  in  twenty.one> 
years. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  landed  part  of  tho 
nation  reap  no  advantage  from  the  increase  of  the  cir- 
culation bj'  the  banking  system  ;  but,  on  the  contrary 
they  are  greatly  the  looscrs.  All  those  who  have  ilxed 
salaries,  such  as  oflicers  in  the  army  and  navy,  and  ma- 
ny officers  in  the  citil  departments,  wht)  have  either  fix- 
ed salaries  or  stipulated  fees,  must  sustain  greater  loss- 
es than  the  landholders,  for  the  latter  sometimes  have 
it  in  their  power  to  raise  their  rents,  while  the  formeif 
are  at  the  mercy  of  those  whose  interest  is  to  oppress 
them.  What  their  reai  looses  are,  is  difficult  to  ascer- 
tain exactly  ;  but  whoever  will  take  the  trouble  to 
compare  the  expcnces  of  house-keeping  now,  with  what 
it  was  twenty  years  ago,  will  find  that  it  itas  been  in- 
creased one  half  in  value,  by  the  depreciation  of  money 
and  the  circulation  of  paper  money  or  bank  notes. 

But  whatever  injury  may  be  done  to  the  rich,  the  in- 
jury done  to  the  laboring  part  of  the  community,  oi»  na- 
tion, is  by  far  the  greatest  and  most  to  be  deplored  ; 
for  the  rich  are  only  deprived  of  superfluities,  whicb^ 
may,  perhaps,  be  a  benefit  rather  than  an  injury,  and 
may  excite  a  laudable  sympathy  in  some  of  their  minds, 
of  which,  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  luxury,  they  are  ge- 
nerally totally  destitute  ;  but  the  laborer  is  deprived  of 
necessaries-^besides,  the  advanced  price  has  been  mutch 
greater  on  necessaries  than  on  superfluities;  every  man 
is  effeetcfl  by  this  in  proportion  to  the  part  of  his  in- 
come employed  in  either,  consequently  it  falls  heaviest 

5 


34 

on  the  smallest  incomes,  where  there  must  be  the  great- 
est part,  or  the  whole,  applied  to  the  purchase  of  ne- 
cessaries. The  laborer,  therefore,  whose  whole  in- 
come is  employed  in  this  way,  must  be  the  greatest  suf- 
ferer. 

The  injustice  done,  hy  the  circulation  of  bank  notes^ 
to  this  cla^s  of  citizens,  is,  if  possible,  more  palpable, 
hy  far,  than  that  done  to  any  others,  for  although 
the  injustice  of  depriving  any  man  of  that  share  of  pro- 
ductions of  society  to  which  he  is  entitled,  by  his  pro- 
perty or  his  money,  must  be  extremely  unjust  ;  }et  the 
injustice  of  depriving  the  productive  laborer,  the  man 
hy  whose  industry  his  family  is*  indebted  for  their  sup-  . 
port,  conveniences  and  even  ornameMts,  of  any  part  of 
the  small  siiare  he  has  been  able  to  retain  of  the  pro- 
duction of  his  labor,  tnust  be  peculiarly  striking;  what 
words  <!a»  be  found  sutiiciently  expressive  of  our  indig- 
nation against,  and  abhorrence  of  the  conduct  of  a 
set  of  men  who  should  combine  to  deprive  the  produc- 
tive laborer  of  his  wages  ?  well  might  the  curse  of  om- 
nipotence be  denounced  against  them  !  Yet  this  have 
the  bankers  positively  done,  for  there  cannot  be  any  dif- 
ference between  taking  six  pence  out  of  a  shilling,  or 
reducing  the  value  of  a  shilling  to  sixpence,  A  man 
is  equally  injured  by  having  the  value  of  his  money  re- 
duced one  half,  as  by  having  one  half  stolen  away  ;  the 
w.iges  of  a  laborer  will  cot  now  purchase  one  half  of 
the  most  necessary  provisions,  absolutely  necessary  fop 
him  in  his  condition,  that  his  wages  would  have  done 
before  the  iestablishinent  of  banks  in  this  country.-— 
Therefore,  the  issuing  of  bank  viotes  has  as  effectually 
robbed  him  of  one  half  of  his  wages,  as  if  they  had  put 
their  hands  into  his  pocket  and  stolen  it  out,  or  formed 
a  combination  to  reduce  his  wages-  Whatever  may  be 
the  reduction  at  present,  it  must  go  on  increasiiig  con- 


^     35 

iinually,  for  as  macliincry  increases  its  force  by  circu- 
lation, they  can  have  no  hopes  of  oht^Jning  any  propor- 
tional increase  in  their  wages,  for  the  sense  of  justice 
and  the  principles  of  right  and  wrong  seem  to  be  oblite- 
rated, even  from  the  minds  of  men  appointed  as  ,i>iiar- 
dians  of  justice,  so  that  the  worthy  laborer  must  starve 
or  be  supported  by  the  public.  This  is  (he  case  at  pre- 
sent with  vast  numbers,  and  is  annually  rapidly  in- 
creasing ;  yet  we  boast  of  the  flourishing  state  of  our 
commerce,  straining  every  nerve,  mortgaging  the  labor 
of  unborn  posterity  and  the  fruits  of  their  industry,  to 
divert  commerce  from  the  channel  formed  by  natufe 
for  it  ro  pass  through,  vainly  striving  to  compel  nature 
to  bow  to  avarice  and  art,  to  facilitate  and  enlarge  com- 
merce !  Pray  what  is  that  commerce  worth  that  can- 
not maintain  those  who  carry  it  on  ? 

The  merchants  of  the  United  States,  indeed,  may  be 
allowed  to  boast  of  the  benefits  of  commerce,  and  par- 
ticularly those  of  New  York  ;  the  concurrence  of  fa- 
vorable circumstances,  resulting  from  our  neutrality 
for  many  years,  during  the  convulsions  of  Europe,  is, 
perhaps,  unparalleled  in  commercial  history.  They 
tax  the  community  by  the  profits  on  their  gooc's,  and 
likewise  tax  the  public  at  large  in  making  them  rich 
by  maintaining  the  poor. 

The  condition  of  tradesmen  is  equally  deplorable  | 
they  are  no  longer  paid  for  what  they  do  ;  they  must  lay 
Qttt  of  their  money  for  months  and  years.  Before  the 
establishment  of  banks,  tradesmen  and  mechanics,  were 
far  more  punctually  and  reerularly  paid,  than  they  now 
are ;  their  losses  now,  by  delays  and  disappointments, 
insolvenciei,  by  taking  hills  on  distant  and  depreciated 
banks,  which  they  are  obliged  to  pass  at  a  discount.  &c. 
amounts  to  at  least  r>0  per  cent,  on  all  their  labor,  be- 
sides paying  double  for  e?cry  thing  they  need.     It  also 


36 

amoimts  to  aiinoist  a  prohibition  to  a  young  man  to  get 
into  business  for  himself,  for  want  of  large  capital,  Un> 
less  lie  can  give  credit  he  can  get  no  custom  ;  neither 
can  he  borrow  at  reasonable  or  legal  interest  and  dis- 
tant  payment,    because    the  interest  drawn   on    bank  . 
shares  is  greater,  and  payments  more  punctual,  people 
prefer  vesting  their  money  in  them  to  lending  to  indi- 
viduals,  however  worthy  or  safe  ;    he   is,  therefore, 
forced  to  work  as  journeyman  for  life,  and  to  maintain^ 
perhaps,  a  numerous  family  ;  work  for  a  capricious  and 
tyrannical  master,  pay  him  a  tithe  out  of  his  wages  and 
who  will  deal  out  his  wages  how  much  or  how  little,  as 
Ills  humour  or  interest  dictates  ;  he  is  utterly  excluded 
from  his  political  rank,  and  is  a  victim  to  the  banking 
system. 

The  worthy  capitalist  or  honest  regular  trader  is  also 
injured  in  his  circumstances,  by  the  idle  and  desperate 
adventurer  being  able  to  borrow  money  from  the  banks^ 
to  rival  him  in  trade,  compel  him  to  divide  his  profits 
and  his  business,  and  thereby  reduce  him  to  want  and 
beggery  at  the  close  of  life,  after  all  his  eiforts  to  avoid 
it.  Their  dissipated  lives,  extravagance  and  ignorance 
of  business,  by  not  learning  its  principles  by  practice^ 
continually  exposes  them  to  miscarriage  and  failures^ 
to  their  utter  ruin,  and  their  friends  who  have  become 
their  securities  ;  the  forced  sales  of  their  property, 
continually  injures  the  worthy  dealer,  and  renders  all 
property  in  trade  very  precarious. 

The  banking  system  likewise  injures  all  minors ;  if 
they  happen  to  be  young  at  the  time  property  is  left 
them,  they  will  not  receive  more  than  half  its  value 
when  they  arrive  at  the  age  of  21,  if  the  bankers  should 
be  permitted  to  increase  in  numbers,  and  in  the  increas- 
ing the  circulation  of  their  notes  ;  all  those  who  have 
monies  in  the  funds  to  receive  at  a  future  day  should 
look  to  this. 


37 

It  is  to  this  prodigious  increase  of  paper  that  England 
is  imlebted  principally  for  the  frequency  of  her  wars, 
for  bank  notes  not  only  enables  the  minister  to  contract 
debts  and  raise  supplies,  with  infinitely  greater  facility 
than  he  otherwise  could  do,  but  it  renders  war  absolute- 
ly necessary  for  promoting  the  interest  of  a  very  power- 
ful body  of  men — I  mean  the  bankers.  The  increasing 
the  quantity  of  money  to  be  lent,  without  a  similar  in- 
crease in  the  quantity  wanted  to  be  borrowed,  mubt  ne- 
cessarily reduce  the  interest  ?  therefore,  if  the  demand 
for  money  were  not  from  time  to  time  increased,  the 
constant  increase  of  the  quantity  to  be  lent,  by  means  of 
bank  notes,  would  in  time  reduce  the  interest  to  almost 
nothing.  War,  therefore,  is  the  most  effectual  means 
of  increasing  the  demand  and  raising  the  interest  on 
money,  but  when  war  cannot  be  conveniently  resorted 
to,  the  enormous  exyence  of  a  Canal  may  serve  as  a 
temporary  substitute,  to  serve  the  interest  of  money- 
lenders in  tliis  slal£. 

The  banks,  by  having  a  great  deal  of  money  belong- 
ing to  other  people,  which  they  cannot  employ  but  in 
such  ^  manner  as  to  be  able  to  call  it  in  oa  any  emer- 
gency, will  always  be  investing  large  sums  in  the  funds  j 
and  as  the  interest  they  receive  will  be  high,  in  propor- 
tion as  the  prices  of  stocks  are  low,  war,  which  reduces 
the  prices,  must  be  to  them  particularly  desirable. — 
But  the  banks,  that  have  the  revenue  in  their  posses^ 
sion,  have  an  interest  in  war  distinct  from  that  of  other 
banks  ;  for  as  all  the  money  raised  by  taxes  is  lodged 
there,  the  revenue  becomes  a  fund  for  circulating  the 
notes  of  the  bank,*  and  as  the  profits  of  the  proprietors 

*  The  sound  of  a  great  capital  abroad  may  gain  credit  to 
the  bank,  but  is  not  absolutely  necessary  for  an  extensive 
circulation.  Tliis  will  he  clearly  seen  by  the  operation  of 
the  Farmers  Exchange  Bank,  in  the  state  of  Rhode-Island, 
an  account  of  which  is  hei-caftcr  given. 


38 

depend  on  ihe'quanriiy  of  their  paper  in  circulation, 
and  as  that  rausi  depend  on  the  larjceness  of  rheir  Tunds, 
war,  which,  bv  increasing  the  national  debt  and  taxes, 
increase  their  funds,  must  greatly  contribute  to  their 
advantage.  Kven  if  war  was  not  so  immediately  for 
the  advantage  of  t!ue  bankers,  they  would  be  stilt  oblig- 
ed to  supjiort  it  if  the  governmoni  thought  proper;  for, 
as  their  very  <f'xistence  depends  on  deception,  it  is  in 
the  power  of  government  to  annihilate  them  in  a  mo- 
ment, by  refusing  their  notes  in  the  payment  of  taxes. 

They  are,  therefor*',  as  much  dependent  on  them, 
and  as  much  at  their  command,  as  if  they  depended  on 
them  for  their  daily  subsistence  ;  nor  is  it  to  be  S4ip- 
posod  that  men  who  get  rich  by  the  plunder  of  their 
neighborsr  ean  have  many  scruples  in  prQ|hioting  the 
\iews  of  others,  however  pernicious,  and  even  where 
they  themselves  are  to  share  in  the  profits  there  can  be 
no  doubt  of  their  most  cordial  support. 

Having  shown  the  great  interest  that  monied  men  and 
monied  institutions  have  in  creating  war,  and  in  sup- 
porting it  after  it  is  created,  what  then  can  any  man 
think  of  the  wisdom  and  morality  of  the  general  go- 
vernment, in  leaving  all  the  revenue  in  the  hands  of  the 
bankers  for  many  years,  averaging  an  amount  equal  to 
twenty  millions  annually,  thereby  assisting  the  bankers 
if  not  to  bring  on  war,  at  least  to  rob  their  fellow-citi- 
zens of  an  immense  amount  by  enabling  them  to  circu- 
late a  vast  deal  more  paper. 

Suppose  a  general  alarm  was  jexcited  by  the  immense 
quantity  of  hank  notes  now  in  circulation,  and  n  general 
demand  made  on  the  banks  for  cash  for  their  notes,  and 
the  people  to  accept  of  no  more  of  their  paper,  would 
not  the  bankers  pay  their  notes  with  any  body's  cash  in 
their  possesssion  sooner  than  fail  ?  Has  the  general  go- 
vernment any  special  security,  that  in  case  any  such  de- 


39 

inan<l  should  be  made  on  tliein,  that  tliey  will  not  pay 
their  notes  with  the  revenue. 

I'he  banking  svstem  also  supports  an  enormous  sys- 
tem of  speculation  and  monopoly  that  racks  the  poles. 
This  may  be  seen  by  the  conduet  of  the  British  mer- 
chants in  the  year  1793.  In  eonsequenee  of  >vup 
with  France,  eonimeree  then  received  a  sudden  and 
deadly  blow.  Notwithstandinj^all  their  commercial  ad- 
vantages, and  the  immense  aid  they  received  from  the 
banks,  it  was  still  insufficient,  at  those  times,  to  save 
them  from  ruin  and  general  bankruptcy  ;  had  not  the 
minister  stepped  into  their  aid,  by  lending  them  three 
million  pounds  sterling,  in  exchequer  and  navy  bills  !  a 
general  bankruptcy  would  have  been  the  consequence. 

Since  then  it  is  evident  that  the  commodities  in  theii* 
possession  did  not  belong  to  th«-ni,  in  whose  possession 
they  were,  but  had  been  engrossed  by  them  for  specula- 
tion, by  means  of  paper  borrowed  from  the  banks — se- 
condly, that  this  specuhition  was  with  a  view  to  triono- 
poly.  If  this  had  not  been  the  case,  or  it  they  had  com- 
modities double  the  amount  of  their  debts,  would  they 
not  have  brought  a  part  of  them  to  market,  equal  to  the 
amount  of  their  debts,  rather  than  have  pawned  double 
the  amount ;  but  it  is  presumed  that  the  commodities^ 
in  their  possession,  were  not,  at  a  fair  market  price, 
worth  the  amount  of  their  debts  ;  then  nothing  could 
Lave  saved  them  from  ruin  but  screwing  up  their  mo- 
nopoly to  an  exorbitant  price.  M'ith  this  view,  it  was 
of  but  little  consequence  to  them  how  much  of  their 
commodities  were  pawned  ;  their  object  was  to  keep 
them  out  of  the  market,  and  as  the  loan,  borrowed  of 
government,  served  to  pay  off  their  first  bills,  it  enabled 
them  to  bring  their  commodities  to  market  as  Srow  as 
they  plcHbcd^  so  as  to  inhancc  the  price  two  or  three 
fold. 


40 

Again,  on  the  i5t!i  of  March,  1797,  the  price  of  wheat 
was  raised  to  95  shillings  per  quarter.  There  was  eve-* 
ry  appearance  of  famine.  The  government  went  to 
work  to  strengthen  the  idea,  by  ordering  a  general  fast 
throughout  the  island.  All  the  ecclesiastical  corps, 
and  all  the  orators  of  government,  were  to  prevail  with 
the  people  to  believe  it  to  be  an  approaching  famine, 
and  that  they  should  bear  it  with  christian  fortitude. 
However,  on  the  12th  of  April,  the  bubble  burst;  the 
wheat  fell  from  95  to  58  shillings  ;  and  there  was  every 
reason  to  believe  that  it  would  have  been  much  lowe^ 
still,  had  it  not  been  for  the  loan  lent  by  government  to 
the  merchants,  who  had  engrossed  all  the  grain  in  the 
country  ;  the  arrangement  was  proclaimed  in  parlia- 
ment on  the  ISth  of  April ;  the  17th  of  May,  the  mer- 
chants received  the  loan  of  one  and  an  half  miiliott 
pounds  sterling,  from  government  ;  and  on  the  28th, 
wheat  bad  again  risen  to  77  shillings.  The  same  game 
is  f>ow  playing  by  the  monopolizers  of  New- York,  by 
the  help  of  the  banks. 

Again,  on  the  2ith  of  May,  1797,  the  mtitistcr  pro- 
posed a  tax  of  ten  per  cent,  on  all  Wsst- India  sugars. 
The  merchants  in  the  trade  declared  they  could  not 
pay  it.  They  alledged  that  the  markets  were  all  over- 
stocked, and  that  they  had  early  payments  to  make, 
and  would  be  obliged  to  sell,  at  all  events,  to  make  good 
their  contracts.  The  government  lent  them  a  million 
and  a  half  to  pay  up  their  first  bills,  to  enable  them  to 
bring  their  sugars  to  market  as  slow  as  they  chose, 
so  as  to  enhance  the  price  to  an  extravagant  amount, 
and  though  the  tax  was  only  ten  per  cent,  the  sugars, 
on  which  it  was  laid,  rose  more  than  seventy  per  cent, 
in  consequence  of  it. 

Is  it  any  wonder,  then,  that  the  merchant  and  minis- 
ter are  so  kind  to  each  other  !     These  are  commercial 


41 

advantages  with  a  witness  to  it.  Before  the  estahlisli- 
ment  of  the  hank  of  England,  in  1694,  there  were  no 
poor  people,  nor  any  taxes  collected  for  their  support. 
Now,  at  this  lime,  the  poor  rates  in  England  exceed 
fifty  millions  of  dollars  annually.  The  government  has 
reduced  them  to  the  lowest  degradation,  and  keeps  theru 
down  with  the  hayonet.  * 

Having  shewn  the  baneful  effects  of  the  banking  sys- 
tem in  England,  I  will  endeavour  to  show  that  it  has 
produced  the  same  effects  in  this  country  ;  the  like 
causes  will  produce  the  same  effects  every  where. 

It  is  as  notorious  a  truth  as  that  the  sun  gives  light 
when  it  shines,  that  our  merchants,  and  speculators  of 
every  descriptions,  borrow  millions  of  dollars  (in  paper) 
from  our  banks  annually,  to  assist  them  in  engrossing 
every  article  in  life,  and  particularly  those  articles  in- 
dispensable to  life  ^  thereby  to  enhance  the  price  to  an 
extravagant  amount,  double  or  treble  their  real 
worth,  or  what  they  would  be  had  at  without  monopoly  5 
J  thus  compelling  their  fellow-men,  who>>cannot  do  with- 
out them,  to  give  those  exorbitant  prices. 

And  even  bankers  themselves,  by  their  agents^  en- 
gage in  this  fell  speculation;  witness  the  butter  8i>ecu- 
lation,  which  is  fresh  in  evory  man's  recollection  in  this 
city.  Whatever  might  have  been  the  result  of  that  ac- 
cursed monopoly,  to  those  engaged  in  it,  it  had  the 
effect  of  raising  that  article  to  a  price,  from  which  it 
has  Bot  at  present  fell  to  what  it  ought  to  be.  And  now, 
while  I  am  writing,  there  are  persons  in  the  city  of 
New-York,  who  have  it  in  their  power  to  issue  bank- 
Aptes  to  an  amount  equal  to  the  engrossing  any  article 
in  the  market  which  may  promise  a  profitable  specu- 
lation. 

The  merchant  and  dealer,  who  folfows  this  practice, 
might  av  well;  and  with  as  much  justice,  put  their  hands 

6 


42 

into  their  customcis  pockets  and  steal  one  lialf  of  their 
inoncj  away,  as  to  compel  Iheni,  because  their  need  re- 
cjuires  it.  to  give  double  their  rral  and  just  value  5  though 
the  means  are  diiferent  the  moral  is  tiic  same. 

This  base  robbery  or  extortion,  throughout  all  our 
cities,  and  even  country  towns,  (lor  there  is  petty  bank- 
ers in  thera  all)  has  dcpMived  the  great  majority  of  the 
nation  from  the  benefits  and  the  moral  influence  of  our 
revolution.  Their  condition  is  very  little  better  ;  and 
iji  a  few  years  more,  this  banking  system  will  reduce 
them  to  a  situation  as  deplorable  as  that  of  other  coun- 
tries, where  there  are  no  such  words  or  ideas  as  Liberty 
and  Equality.  Does  not  this  system  tend  directly  to 
reduce  the  patriotic  saldicr,  who  has  hazarded  his  life 
10  repel  British  insolence,  to  distressing  want,  and  to 
compel  him  to  beg  his  bread  on  the  very  soil  which  his 
blood  has  purchased  and  been  shed  to  defend  !  how 
painful  the  reflection  !* 

*  The  moral  prospect,  which  presented  itself  at  the  close 
of  our  RcvolulioHjAvas  unprecedented  in  the  whole  human 
history.  Our  country  was  a  political  paradise,  with  free 
access  to  the  tree  of  knowledge.  The  wide  world  was  open 
before  us  and  without  an  enemy  on  its  surface  ;  and  all  its 
mhabitants  wishing  us  well. 

This  vast  continent,  repkte  in  every  blessing,  of  every 
soil,  of  every  climate  ;  capable  of  every  production  of  nature, 
and  this  for  ever  ours  I  To  go  to  work  and  enjoy  the  frui'is 
of  our  moderate  and  salutary  labor,  was  all  that  was  neces- 
sary for  us  to  do.  But  it  seem  to  have  been  our  misfortune, 
that  all  or  at  leatrt  the  worst  propensities,  that  disgrace  the 
human  character,  predominate  in  our  public  councils  ;  or  at 
least  have  so  far  predominated  as  to  produce  all  the  political 
evils  which  have  befel  and  now  await  us,  and  particularly  the 
Me  war.  The  cupidity  of  bankers  was  the  generating  cause 
of  the  opposition  to  the  pacific  policy  of  the  immortal  Jeffer- 
son. Had  the  policy  of  that  peerless  patriot  and  statesman, 
been  seconded  by  t^ie  people  of  these  states,  with  that  degree 
of  energy,  which  it  merited.     The  thousands  of  human  sac- 


43 

» 

No  sooner  a  bank  is  establisheil  in  any  place,  than  all 
the  cash  disappeai's  iVoru  circulation.  It  is  taken  to  the 
bank  as  a  deposit,  luid  for  safety,  as  well  as  to  obtain 
favours  from  the  bankers,  even  the  revenue  of  the  gene- 
ral government  is  iodised  in  the  bunks.  Averaging 
nearly  twenty  millions  of  dollars  annually. 

The  Bankers  arc  thus  furnished  with  immense  loan 
capiial.  It  becomes  an  immense  fund  to  circulate  their 
note*  upon  ;  and  as  the  bankers  set  up  the  triide  with 
the  sole  view  of  gain,  the  more  they  issue  the  more 
tiiey  will  gain,  und'llie  more  is  wanting  to  be  done;  it 
is  fair  to  infer,  that  tho^'  issue  all  they  can.  It  may 
perliaps  be  asserted  that  they  are  limited  by  law  io 
issue  only  a  certain  amount  beyond  the  capital,  and  to 
isijiue  no  more.  But  is  not  the  temptation  rather  too 
strong,  with  avarice  for  its  auxiliary,  for  an  inoperative 
Jaw  1,0  proven:,  when  tlio  key  to  detection  is  in  tlieir 
own  pockets  ?  rticre  is  no  arithmetical  limits  that  can 
be  -fixed  to  the  amount  of  paper  the  bankers  may  issue 
while  their  credit  is  good,  (that  is,  while  suspicion  is 
a  sleep.)  P;iper  can  pay  paper  without  end,  while  rags 
are  to  be. had  in  this  (soon  will  be)  ragged  country  ;  and 
when  likely  to  be  pressed  for  huge  sums  in  specie,  they 
refuse  payment.  What  amount  of  interest  tbey  draw 
from  the  use  of  all  their  notes,  it  is  diiHcult  for  any  oncy 
not  in  their  secret,  to  ascertain  to  any  exactness ;  but 
it  must  be  very  great — it  must  be  immense.  How  else 
can  we  aceon-it  for  <heir  princely  palaces,  their  plates, 

rifices,  whoseblood  has  been  shed  upon  the  altar  of  banking 
avarice  and  the  consequent  distress  which  fills  our  country, 
would  have  been  prevented,  and  our  country  at  this  day- 
would  have  presented  a  spectacle  of  happiness  of  arts,  sci- 
ences, manufactories  and  agriculture,  equal  to  the  supply  cf 
every  rational  want  or  wish,  and  our  country,  truly  in  fact 
(not  as  now)  completely  Independent.  War  is  the  Pharo, 
'ible  of  statc;smen,  and  a  wheel  of  Fortune  to  bankers. 


44^ 

engravings,  their  stationary,  their  printing,  their  poi- 
lage,  clerics'  salaries,  their  charters,  rents,  bonuses, 
docuers,  hQ*  with  the  princely  fortunes  they  retire 
"within  a  few  years. 

The  profits  of  our  Banks  must  he  very  great,  niuch 
greater  than  any  European  Banks.  It  has  induced 
foreigners  to  invest  large  sums  in  many  of  them  ;  they 
have  become  principle  stockholders  in  some  of  thein. 
Foreigners  arethusenahledto  draw  from  us  every  year 
large  sums  of  money  as  Interest,  in  specie,  to  the  great 
injury  of  internal  improvement,  and  making  us  moi*c 
dependent  on  them  for  every  thing  wc  need  They  arc 
tijus  promoting  their  own  views  and  interests  on  Amer- 
ican ground.  Besides  all  this,  they  are  attached  to 
foreign  habits  and  influence;  they  are  enemies  to  our 
republican  institutions ;  they  agitate  our  councils,  divide 
our  people,  set  law  at  defiance,  and  unuerve  the  arm  of 
our  general  government. 

We  have  nothing  in  our  republican  institutions  that 
ean  balance  this  overwhelming  foreign  influence.  The 
imminent  danger,  from  which  we  recently  made  hut  a 
hair-breadth  escape,  must  be  fresh  in  the  memory  of 
t>f  every  man ;  the  conduct  of  bankers  abundantly  prove 
their  hostility  to  republican  forms  of  government.— 
They  have  already  purchased  a  majority  of  the  legig- 
iative  and  judicial  authority.  Their  remains  only  the 
virtue  of  the  people  to  prevent  them  from  ingulphing 
the  continent  in  ruin.  The  management  of  the  Banks 
is  placed  in  the  hands  of  directors  chosen  annually  by 
the  stockholders.  They  have  great  privileges  and  au- 
thority, very  little  inferiour  to  the  petty  despots  of  the 
earth.  Their  services  as  directors,  entitle  them  to  the 
use  of  10,  20,  30,  or  forty  thousand  dollars  annually  ; 
by  paying  legal  inti  rest  on  it,  those  sums  are  allowed 
according  to  the  capital  of  the  Bank. 


45 

They  may  discount  paper  for  whom  they  please  and 
to  any  amount,  and  the  may  ruin  who  they  please  by  re- 
fusing to  continue  their  discount  and  compelling  imme- 
diate payment  to  the  Bank — And  besides  a  political 
viengeance,  they  have  pecuniary  vengeance  also  in  the 
ruin  of  any  man  they  chose,  towards  accomplishing  this 
abominable  design,  their  cash  priviliges  are  of  the  great- 
est benefit  to  them.  It  is  to  say  the  least  of  it,  a  scene 
of  Corruption  from  beginning  to  end  !  ! 

A  law  to  establish  a  Hank  is  a  law  to  banish  every 
thing  useful  out  of  a  country.  The  constant  and  pro- 
digious increase  of  paper  manufactured  at  the  banks, 
and  set  a  float  by  speculators,  raises  the  prices  of  all  the 
Commodities  of  life  to  an  extravagant  hight  so  that  me- 
chanics and  labourers  are  forced  by  their  neccssiHes  to 
demand  high  wages  in  order  to  support  themselves. 
This  opperates  as  a  prohibition  to  many  useful  arts  and 
manufactories,  from  ever  succeeding  in  this  country^ 
The  injury  done  to  thQ  nation  in  this  point  is  incalcula- 
ble, besides  making  us  wholy  dependant  on  foreign  na- 
tions for  every  thing  we  need,  we  shall  always  be  em- 
broiled in  their  wickedness  and  wars,  while  this  course 
of  things  continues  to  exist  among  us.*  Besides  all  (his, 
it  unnerves  every  kind  of  virtuous  industry  by  Voiding 
out  temptations  to  speculations  and  monopoly,  which  U 
ten  times  worse  to  the  morrais  and  injurious  to  society, 

*  The  policy  of  the  British  government  is  directed  against 
our  commerce  and  manufactories.  It  has  been  declared  iu 
parliment  that  it  would  be  better  for  them  to  sacrafice  some 
millions  than  suffer  American  manufacturers  to  succeed, 
their  policy  has  been  aided  by  the  conduct  of  our  anglefied 
government,  Merchants  and  Bankers,  to  the  total  destruc- 
tion of  our  manufactories,  and  the  immense  sums  drawn 
from  us  annually  in  specie  to  pay  for  their  goods  is  furnish- 
ing them  again  with  the  sure  means  of  the  destruction  of  our 
republican  institutions. 


4(5 

than  the  increase  of  paper  by  Ihe  Banks,  is  to  Kiaiiufac- 
turers.  It  promotes  idleness  and  dissipation  of  every 
description;  foreign  Aishions,  follies,  waste  and  extrava- 
gance. It  drives  industry  and  morality  beyond  the 
sphere  of  its  baleful  influence,  insomuch  that  a  worthy 
honest  man  is  rare  to  be  found  among  us.  See  the  daily 
papers  filled  with  Insolvencies,  Bankruptcies  and  For- 
geries, an  eternal  disgrace  to  the  nation.  It  is  the  high- 
est species  of  gambling  that  ever  was  known,  it  is  a 
shame  to  any  country  calling  itself  civilized  to  permit  it. 
It  is  far  worse  than  robery  on  the  high  road,  for  the 
highway  robber  puts  his  life  or  liberty  at  stake,  there 
is  a  risk  againit  the  profit.  But  our  Banking  gentry, 
avoid  all  dangers  and  prevent  all  escapes.  '^I'he  history 
of  banks  is  a  history  of  monopoly,  and  a  history  of  mo- 
nopoly is  a  history  of  the  worst  specjes  of  rohery.  The 
history  of  paper  currency  among  all  nations,  is  a  history 
of  robery  of  the  basest  sort,  it  is  much  like  the  treach- 
ery of  a  pretended  friend.  We  place  confidence  in  his 
promise  and  become  his  seeurify-^he  gives  us  the  slip — 
thus  involving  ourselves  and  families  in  distressing  want 
and  poverty.  This  is  exactly  the  case  with  Bank  Notes, 
"we  suppose  they  may  be  paid  in  cash  at  any  time,  but 
ivhen  suspicion  arises,  the  cheat  is  at  an  end,  the  pos- 
sessors of  notes  must  be  the  loosers,  This  has  been 
prooved  to  demonstration  in  this  country  already.  Mil- 
lions of  Dollars  in  paper  have  been  entirely  lost,  and 
thousands  of  families  ruined  by  it.  Though  strange  to 
tell  we  play  the  same  game  over  again.  It  was  expect- 
ed when  the  Bank  «f  the  United  States  began  its  opper- 
ations  and  the  banking  gentry  removed  the  embargo  on 
specie,  that  it  >vouId  again  appear  in  circulation,  but 
there  is  scarcely  any  to  be  seen  not  even  one  dollar  in 
cash  to  a  thousand  of  paper  and  it  is  growing  scarcer 
every  day.     Our  Bankers  are  as  true  to  their  interest 


47 

ws  the  needle  to  the  pole.  They  sell  the  East  India 
merchants,  at  a  premium,  large  sums  of  it  anually^  the 
more  specie  that  is  shiped  abroad,  the  bitter  far  them 
the  more  need  and  room  there  is  to  issue  and  circulate 
their  notes. 

.  The  English  nation  had  placed  great  and  strong  con- 
fidence in  their  hank  for  more  than  two  hundred  \ears- 
In  the  mon(h  of  Feb.  1797  a  publication  was  circulated 
through  England  in  which  it  was  proved  that  the  bank 
had  been  insolvent  for  more  than  cne  hundred  and  fifty 
yeais  before.  In  consequence  of  this  publication,  tho 
people  who  held  their  paper  took  an  alarm  and  called 
lor  payment  of  their  notes  in  cash  for  which  they  had 
given  the  productions  of  tlieir  labour,  this  step  was 
justifiable  on  every  principle  of  equity  and  prudehce, 
TliOie  who  by  the  proxemity  of  their  situa<ion,  or  by 
early  information  called  first  on  the  bank  got  their  pay 
but  those  who  called  last  got  nothing,  the  bank  failed 
the  real  fact  was,  that  they  could  not  pay  one  penny 
on  the  pound  for  all  notes' that  they  had  issed. 

Their  government  in  the  true  spirit  and  principles 
of  their  fell  system  made  their  notes  a  legal  tender,  and 
made  them  current  by  the  point  cf  the  bayonet.  Well 
might  their  political  orators  declaim  against  French 
assignats  and  maxemum  laws.  Well  might  the  British 
assist  the  national  assembly  of  France  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  paper  and  export  it  to  Britany,  and  their  liber- 
ality i's  equally  extended  to  our  bankers  by  the  intro- 
duction of  notes  from  their  Canadian  teritory. 

IIow  much  better  was  the  conduct  of  our  bankers  i.i 
their  late  refusal  to  pay  their  notes  ?  My  fellow-citi- 
zens may  determine  the  question.  The  cash  which 
ought  to  have  been  apropriated  to  the  payment  of  the 
notes  of  the  Bank  of  England  had  been  shipped  to  the 
Continent  to  pay  foreign  butchers  to  murder  French 


48 

Citizens  and  destroy  their  republic  and  again  enslave 
Fuanee.  The  cash  which  ought  to  be  apropriated  to  the 
payment  of  the  notes  of  our  bankers  is  daily  shiped  off  to 
pay  the  dividends  of  foreign  stock  holders  and  the  im- 
mense balance  ogainst  us  for  European  and  India  ma- 
nufactories to  the  utter  ruin  and  destruction  of  our  own, 
and  making  our  citizens  slaves  to  foreign  luxuries,  and 
sapping  the  very  foundation  of  our  republican  institu- 
tions. 

If  our  Legislatures  were  in  the  least  acquainted  with 
the  history  of  our  country  they  must  have  known  that 
in  almost  every  instance  of  the  emision  of  paper  money 
by  whatever  athority;  it  has  been  a  scene  of  iniquitous 
fraud  depriving  the  poor  of  their  hard  earnings;  and 
of  all  classes  the  Republican  Soldier  has  generally  been 
the  greatest  sufi^erer.  In  the  year  one  thousand  six  hun- 
dred and  ninety  the  then  colony  of  Massachusetts  emit- 
ed  a  large  sum  in  bills  to  pay  the  soldiers  who  had  been 
employed  on  an  expedition  against  Canada,  these  bills 
were  received  by  them  in  payment  for  their  services  ; 
the  value  of  them  sunk  immediately  one  third,  though 
the  expedition  against  Canada  failed  the  paper  money 
performed  the  exploit  of  robbing  the  soldier  and  soon 
got  into  better  hands  when  the  gradually  appreciated 
by  being  made  receivable  on  taxes.  The  success  of 
this  speculation  induced  the  assembly  of  Massachusetts 
to  make  subsequent  emissions,  in  171  i,  and  1714,  and 
1716,  amounting  to  about  half  a  million  of  dollars  for 
defraying  the  expense  of  the  war  against  Canada,  these 
with  emitions  for  other  purposes  had  greatly  augmented 
the  sum  and  in  1 749  it  had  depreciated  to  about  six 
pence  on  a  dollar. 

South  Carolina  in  1702  projected  and  undertook  an 
expedition  against  St.  Augustine  the  expedition  failed 
but  a  large  debt  was  contracted,  anrl  paper  money  was 


49 

issued  to  pay  i<,  and  afterwards  in  1712  they  issued 
anotber  large  sum  to  defray  the  expence  of  the  war 
against  the  Tuscaroras,  this  so  augmented  the  sum 
that  it  immediately  sunk  one  half  and  ultimately  to  one 
seventh.  Pennsylvania  in  1 722  issued  paper  m(»ney  to 
the  amount  of  fifteen-thousand  pounds^  ^rhich  was  af- 
terward inereased  to  eighty  thousand  ;  this  paper  by 
act  of  assembly  was  made  a  legal  tender,  so  that  credi- 
tors were  obliged  to  take  it  the  same  as  gold^nd  silver : 
notwithstanding  this,  it  depreciated  to  a  degree  that 
alarmed  the  landlords.  To  silence  their  clamor  the 
assembly  made  them  a  grant  to  indemnefy  them,  and 
secure  the  full  value  of  their  cents  in  sterling  money  : 
in  fine,  all  the  Colonies  at  some  time  or  other  issued 
paper  money ;  it  all  depreciated  more  or  less ;  that 
which  was  made  soonest  payable  on  taxes,  depreciated 
the  least.  The  eifects  and  fate  of  the  paper  money 
Issued  by  Congress  in  the  revoliitionary  war  is  not  only 
well  known,  but  most  severely  felt  by  the  war  worn 
soldier  to  the  present  moment.^  To  paint  the  enormous 
mischiefs  and  frauds  of  paper  money  in  true  colours, 
would  exceed  the  most  exalted  powers  of  human  intel- 
lect ;  it  can  only  be  equalled  by  that  moral  depravity 
and  turpitude  which  has  carried  this  paper  system  to  its 
present  extent,  and  the  evils  that  await  its  final  close. 

aiii»»l   I     ,'  I  ■       '  '        '    '  li  I    ■  Mil     II  I  ■      «i  II  mmm^^^mmm 

*  iS*o  country  on  earth' oVres^o  ra^'ch  to  the  services  of 
the  'soldier  as  the  United  States  of  America. 

By  no  nation  on  earth  have  they  been  so  much  defrauded, 
and  in  a  pecuniary  point  of  view  so  inhumanly  treated. 
When  I  retrospectively  view  the  flinty  hearted  Hessian  at 
tlerman  town  so  melted  into  compassion  for  the  sufferings 
of  his  conqueror,  as  to  bestow  his  own  shoes  in  charity  for 
his  relief,  and  compare  him  with  my  vaporing  representa- 
tive in  Congress  opposing  the  claims  of  the  revoltitionary 
iioldicr,  I  blush  and  hang  my  head  to  think  myself  a  man. 

7 


50 

The  assignats  of  tiance  notwithstanding  the  national 
assembly  robbed  the  churcli  of  her  vast  domains  to 
support  their  credit,  and  their  maximum  laws.  To'make 
them  pass  they  fell  down  to  nothing,  by  the  assistance 
of  the  British  minister  who  caused  a  great  quantity  of 
them  to  be  made  and  shipped  over  to  Brittany,  for  the 
use  of  the  royal ists» 

The  British  Canadians  are  constantly  carrying  on 
the  same  trade  against  these  states.  They  forge  im- 
inence  quantities  of  paper  on  our  different  banks,  they 
with  it  obtain  property  of  our  citizens  by  fraud  ;  there 
is  scarcely  a  dealer  in  all  our  country,  who  cannot  pro- 
duce abundant  specimens  of  the  ingenuity  of  this  kind 
of  banking  gentry,  and  of,  their  own  losses,  and  indeed  the 
person,  whatever  may  be  his  condiiion  in  life,  is  ex- 
tremely fortunate  if  he  has  not  sustained  loss  hj  this 
kind  of  paper.  There  is  no  safety  for  any  man,  under 
this  order  of  things.  The  labour  of  ages  is  swept 
completely  away,  and  the  real  owners  are  left  exposed 
to  seek  for  more,  or  beg  their  bread  as  many  are  com- 
pelled to  do. 

Germany  also  has  been  seized  with  this  same  mad- 
ness :  her  paper  in  1809  and  1810,  was  worth  nothing* 

Had  the  scheme  of  king  James  which  he  adopted  in 
Ireland  been  resorted  to,  it  would  have  been  wise  com- 
pared with  the  p*rif»ej'  sv^tecn^* 

*  Brass  and  copper-of  the  basest  kind,  old  cannon,  broken 
bells,  household  utenbials  were  collected  ;  and  from  every 
pound  weight  of  such  vile  metals,  were  coined  four-penny ' 
pieces  to  the  amount  of  five  pounds  nomenal  value.  What 
a  pUty  our  honourable  and  wise  corporation  had  not  made 
use  of  such  materials  in  their  lute  enussioas  of  change  ; 
some  of  it  would  undoubtedly  be  preserved  as  a  record  of 
their  scgacity  and  honesty  to  future  generations.  The 
service  of  plute  presented  to  their  financier  though  of  bet- 
ter metal,  is  only  one  solitary  evidence  of  their  magna- 
nimity. 


51 

The  laws  of  a  country  ought  to  be  the  standard  of 
equity,  and  calculated  to  impress  on  the  minds  of  the 
people  the  ntonil  as  well  as  the  legal  obligations  of  re- 
ciprocal justice. 

Money  when  considered  as  the  fruiittf  many  years 
Industry,  as  the  reward  of  labour  sweat  an  Aoil,  as  the 
widows  dower,  and  the  orphans  portion,  the  soldiers 
compensation  for  dangers,  hair-breath  escapes,  pinch- 
ing cold  and  hunger  in  his  country's  cause,  as  the 
the  means  of  alleviating  affiiction  and  obtiviniag  neces- 
saries, and  making  old  age  comfortable  and  a  scene  of 
rest,  has  something  in  it  sacred  that  ought  not  to  he 
spoiled  with  or  trusted  to  the  airy  bubbles  of  paper 
currency,  though  under  the  control  and  immediate 
inspection  of  the  r«lers  of  a  state  or  nation,  much  less 
to  a  set  of  men  to  manage  as  their  int<'.rest,  ambition* 
or  avarice  may  dictate ;  wh^se  character  is  drawn  by 
an  eminent  statesman  in  nearly  the  following  words, 
«*  Their  counting-house  is  their  church,  the  desk 
their  altar,  their  ledge  their  bible,  their  gain  their 
God,  and  have  faith  in  none  without  a  good  indorser." 

But  what  may  be  said,  or  rather  what  may  not  be 
said  of  that  government  which  is  not  only  continually 
chartering  companies  with  bank  privileges,  but  suffer- 
ing corporations,  individuals,  merchants,  dram-sellers, 
toll-gatherers,  printers,  and  printers  devils,  to  manu- 
fucture  their  own  change  as  their  wants  or  convenience 
may  require.  This  has  been  the  case  and  the  country 
inundated  with  the  paltry  trash,  so  that  like  Egypt  of 
old,  "  the  land  stank,  so  numerous  was  the  fry."  l^e- 
gides  the  licenced  and  public  money  factories ;  daily  de- 
tections prove  that  there  are  many  very  many  private 
ones  who  carry  on  the  business  in  a  private  clandestine 
manner  to  a  great  extent,  and  find  means  to  get  it  into 
circulation  which  cannot  be  a  very  difficult  maMer, 


6S 

since  they  have  brought  the  art  lo  so  great  perfection 
as  to  deceive  the  bankers  themselves.  Most  surely  it 
is  high  time  to  look  to  these  things ;  but  where  or  to 
whom  shall  we  look  ?  our  legislative  councils  are  sup- 
posed to  be  dn  source  and  guardeans  of  all  political 
justice,  aifi  mat  is  the  fountain  from  which  this  evil 
flows,  it  is  here  we  trace  the  fellow  home,  find  out  his 
birth-place  and  his  dam. 

Since  it  has  been  proved  that  issuing  bank  notes  is 
actually  a  public  robbery,  and  is  the  cause  of  most  of 
the  evils  that  torment  society  and  humanity,  and  that 
gold  and  silver  are  the  only  legitimate  representatives 
of  property,  and  that  they  alone  should  be  used  for  that 
purpose  in  preference  to  ^all  other  materials,  what 
right  or  authority  have  congress,  or  state  legislatures 
to  grant  charters  to  banks,  to  pass  paper  instead  of 
gold  and  silver  ?  The  constitution  of  the  general  go- 
vernment forbids  the  creation  of  orders,  or  granting 
titles  of  nobility,  but  it  is  silent  on  the  subject  of  bank- 
ing, and  certainly  gives  no  authority  for  granting  bank 
privileges,  which  in  their  operation  and  effects  are  as 
abhorrent  to  republican  or  just  principles,  and  more 
perniceous  in  their  effects  on  both  the  interests  and 
morals  of  society.  An  equal  number  of  noblemen  to 
that  of  bankers  in  our  country,  with  sinecure  pensions 
would  be  less  expensive  and  far  less  injurious  to  the 
morals  of  the  citizens. 

It  is  true  that  some  of  our  citizens  might  ape  nobility, 
as  our  bankers  and  others  now  do;  but  this  would  only 
expose  them  to  the  contempt  of  all  sensible  men, 
without  making  them  liable  to  the  pains  and  penalties 
annexed  to  the  horrible  crime  of  forgery  of  bank 
notes.  The  incumbents  would  be  confined  to  the  sti- 
pulated amount  of  income,  which  might  probably  be 


53 

burthenseme,  but  by  no  means  equal  to  tlie  sums  rob- 
bed from  the  public  by  bankers. 

The  constitution  as  before  said,  is  silent  on  the  sub- 
ject, of  banks,  and  that  for  the  most  evident  of  all  rea- 
sons, because  the  people  had  no  such  right  to  delej.-ate. 
A  man  may  transfer  his  own  personal  right,  but  he  can- 
not transfer  the  right  of  society.  The  right  to  acquire 
and  hold  property  by  virtuous  industry  is  one  of  the 
most  sacred  rights  of  man  :  to  deprive  him  of  this  right, 
would  be  to  deprive  him  of  his  existence,  he  can  only 
part  with  this  right  in  his  ceasing  to  exist.  Therefore, 
A  can  have  no  right  to  deligate  to  B,  the  power  to  take 
the  property  of  C  without  an  equivalent  in  exchange. 

Pray  what  is  the  value  of  bank  notes,  or  paper  mo- 
ney ?  let  the  history  of  what  has  happened  in  our  own 
pountry,  and  in  every  other  country  where  the 
fraud  has  been  practiced,  answer  the  question. 
From  these  it  is  evident  that  the  least  breath  of 
suspicion  would  render  a  cart-load  Of  them  of  less 
value  than  a  pinch  of  suuif.  It  therefore  appears  evi- 
dent, that  governments,  general  or  local,  have  no  such 
right  delegated  to  them,  it  is  an  assumed  prerogative, 
an  act  of  arbitrary  power,  an  act  that  tends  to  de- 
stroy and  dissolve  the  very  government  they  have  sworn 
to  maintain,  it  is  an  act  that  common  sense,  common 
honesty,  and  common  safety  would  revolt  against.  It 
tends  to  dissolve  the  government  and  to  set  a  drift  sll 
vhe  property  of  the  nation,  like  the  barbarian,  who  by- 
false  signals  decojs  the  mariner  on  the  rocks,  that  he 
may  have  an  opportunity  of  plundering  the  wreck. 
This  is  the  case  at  the  present  moment,  there  is  proper- 
ty to  an  immense  amount  how  ingrossed  by  speculators 
and  bankers,  by  nM?ans  of  bank  paper  amounting  to 
many  millions,  and  is  continually  augmenting.  Here 
;hen  the  crime  is  fixed,  which  cap  be  neither  palliated 


54< 

BOP  denied,  and  to  which  the  right  of  the  legislatures 
Ho  not  extend.  The  people  ought  therefore  to  hriog 
those  gentry  to  justice,  those  who  proposed  and  those 
who  have  voted  those  laws  that  went  to  estahlish 
banUs,  they  ought  to  be  held  amenable  in  their  proper- 
ty and  persons,  for  all  the  injury  the  public  have  or 
may  sustain  by  the  banking  system.  Honour  and  jus- 
tice demand  that  the  inquiry  should  be  made  ;  to  delay 
it  is  to  encourage  them  in  it,  and  to  invite  others  to  do 
the  same,  until  no  further  attention  is  paid  to  the  inter- 
ests of  thf  nation.  There  would  perhaps  be  found 
among  some  of  those  exclusive  patriots  of  talents  and 
wealth,  who  have  been  in  the  habit  of  ijisulting  the 
nation  with  her  distrf  sses  ;  the  people  ought  to  know 
them  as  the  auihors  of  her  calamities.  That  this  as- 
sumption of  legislative  power  has  escaped  the  lynx  eye 
of  the  judiciary  is  impossible,  unlers  they  have  been 
veiled  with  the  opake  substance  of  bank  paper,  which 
has  been  before  hinted. 

This  subject  must  have  come  before  them  in  many 
shapes,  during  the  many  years  it  has  been  in  operation. 
It  is  universally  ucderstood,  that  they  were  to  be 
judges  of  the  constitutionality  of  those  laws  they  were 
called  on  to  execute  and  enforce,  and  if  they  were  not 
made  agreeable  to  that  instrument,  they  ought  not  to 
carry  them  into  execution.  This  is  what  is  generally 
understood  by  the  independence  of  the  judiciary.  If  it 
does  not  mean  this,  it  is  an  expression  without  any 
meaning,  and  if  it  does  mean  this,  how  do  they  recon- 
cile it  to  their  duty,  to  pronounce  on  the  law  against 
forgery  on  the  banks,  and  doom  a  fellow-man  to  a 
long  imprisonment  at  hard  labour,  for  forgery  on  the 
banks.  If  the  laws  by  which  banks  are  established 
are  not  constitutional  laws,  they  had  no  right  to  exist 
as  such  :  they  are  therefore  no  law,  and  consequently, 


50 

tHe  forgery  no  crime.  I  believe  that  some  of  the  geii- 
tlemeii  of  the  barr  have  serious  scruples  on  this  point, 
but  as  I  httve  never  conversed  with  any  of  them  on  the 
subject,  f  shall  pronounce  no  opinion  upon  it,  but  leave 
the  subject  with  wiser  heads  to  form  their  opinions  on 
this  subject,  and  als6  how  far  the  banking  system  have 
influenced  our  judicial  authorities. 

There  is  no  iFact  more  evident,  than  that  the  bulk  of 
mankind  have  been  the  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of 
water,  for  the  use  and  pleasure  of  knaves  and  tyrants, 
from  the  earliest  ages  to  the  present  moment ;  that 
they  have  been  imposed  on  since  the  institution  cf  legal 
society,  or  in  other  words,  ever  since  the  bounds  of 
property  have  been  established;  and  that  it  is  our  situ- 
ation as  much  as  any  other  nation.  We  labour  for  our 
bankers,  our  landlords,  and  merchants,  and  the  feudal 
power  of  our  landlords  are  very  little  short  of  thatiu 
Hiost  European  countries. 

But  kt  me  not  be  understood  by  this  declaration,  to 
be  an  enemy  or  an  opponent  to  merchants  and  com- 
merce. I  am  on  the  contrary  friend  to  both,  with  Vf  ry 
few  exceptions,  and  tho5e  are  in  favour  of  the  worthy 
mcrchant,who  has  a  capital  of  his  own  honourable  ac- 
quisition, or  who  has  inherited  it  from  his  worthy  ances- 
tors,—that  he  may  be  entitled  to  its  legitimate  advan- 
tages in  exclusion  of  all  intruders, — that  he  may  be 
known,  regarded,  and  respected  as.  a  worthy  labourer 
in  the  vineyard  of  industry, — as  having  done  his  sharo 
of  duty  ill  improving  the  moral  condition  of  man. — He 
is  now  lost  and  amalgamated  among  the  w  reck  of 
things ;  my  object  is  to  remove  as  much  as  in  my  power 
the  rubbish,  and  bring  forth  the  upright  and  honest 
dealer  before  the  public,  as  a  wordiy  model  for  the 
present  generation  to  imitate  and  for  posterity  to  fol- 
loi^.    The  nation  ought  to  be  restored  to  her  genuine 


u 

rights,  and  every  individual  to  his  own,  that  the  worthy 
man  maj  be  known  from  the  unworthy,  that  those  who 
labour  for  the  good  of  society  should  be  restored  toi 
their  political  rank  in  society,  that  they  should  be  re- 
stored to  their  just  rank  among  their  fellow-men,  and 
to  all  the  domestic  comforts  that  nature  hath  designed 
for  their  general  felicity,  from  which  they  are  or  soon 
will  be  driven  by  the  banking  system,  and  left  in  the 
back  ground  of  human  depravity,  to  wear  out  their 
days  in  woe.  It  is  high  time  to  commence  the  work  of 
reform,  it  has  been  too  long  delayed,  and  the  favoura- 
We  representation  of  our  situation  by  great  characters, 
and  the  responses  of  their  votaries  are  calculated  to  in- 
crease our  apathy,  and  divert  our  attention  from  the  all 
iipportant  concern  of  reformation.  The  condition  of 
Lumanity  requires  our  most  active  and  vigorous  exer^ 
tions  I  to  delay  it  longer  would  be  dangerous.  In  a 
few  years  more,  there  may  be  men  with  bayonets  in 
their  hands  to  restrain  or  prevent  our  efforts,  men  that 
will  vote  charter  privileges  to  and  organize  robbery  ; 
will  not  be  very  likely  to  hesrtate  to  provide  force  ta 
protect  it.  Authority  that  can  pronounce  sentence  and 
infortean  unconstitutional  law  in  one  case,  can  with 
as  little  scruple  render  nugatory,  every  law  that  pro- 
tects the  liberty  and  privileges  of  the  citizen. 

Notwithstanding  the  immense  and  almost  countless 
millions  of  bank  money  already  in  the  market,  there 
are  now  before  the  state  legislature  petitions  praying 
for  charters  for  several  more  Banks  with  capitals  of 
several  millions.  His  Excellency  the  Governor  ob- 
serves in  his  message  at  the  opening  of  the  legislature 
on  the  subject.  «  The  evils  arising  from  the  disorder- 
ed state  of  our  currency,  have  been  aggravated  by  the 
banking  opperations  of  individuals,  and  the  unauthoriz- 
ed emissions  of  small  notes  by  corporations.    They  re- 


57 

quire  the  immediate  and  correcting  interposition  of  tlie 
legislature.  **  I  also  submit  to  jour  serious  considera- 
tion whether  the  incorporation  of  banks  where  they  are 
not  required  by  the  exigencies  of  commerce,  trade  or 
manufactories,  ought  to  be  countenanced.  Such  insti- 
tutions having  but  few  deposits  of  money,  must  rely  for 
their  profits  principally  upon  the  circulation  of  their 
notes  and  they  are  therefore  temptied  to  extend  it  be- 
yond their  faculties,  (more  properly  expressed)  their 
abilities.  Their  bills  are  diffused  either  in  the  shape 
of  loans  or  by  the  appointing  confidential  agents,  to  ex- 
change them  for  those  of  other  establishments.  But 
tlie  former  mode  being  conducive  to  profit  is  at  first 
generally  adopted,  and  in  the  early  stages  of  their 
operations,  discounts  are  liberally  dispensed.  This 
produces  an  apparent  activity  in  business  and  the  indi- 
Qations  of  prosperity,  but  it  is  all  fictitious  and  decep- 
tive, resembling  the  hectic  heart  of  a  consuming  disease^ 
not  the  genial  warmth  of  sub«tantial  health,  a  reaction 
soon  takes  place.— Their  bills  are  in  turn  collected  by 
civil  institutions,  or  pass  to  the  banks  of  great  cities ; 
and  payment  being  required,  the  Only  resource  left 
is  to  call  in  their  debts,  and  exact  partial  or  total  re- 
turns of  their  loans.  The  continual  struggle  between 
conflicting  establishments  to  collect  each  others  notes 
occasions  constant  apprehensions."  He  then  proceeds 
to  enumerate  some  of  the  mischievous  consequences,  of 
the  system  such  as  <<  the  banishment  of  metallic  money, 
the  loss  of  commercial  confidence,  the  exhibition  of 
iictitious  capital,  the  increase  of  civil  prosecutions,  the 
multiplication  of  crimes,  the  injurious  enhancement  of 
prices,  and  the  dangerous  extension  of  credit,  are  among 
the  mischiefs  which  flow  from  this  state  of  things, 
and  concludes  the  subject  by  recommending  a  serious 
inquiry,  whether  a  much  greater  augmentation  of  such 


58 

inilitutiofls,  may  not  in  course  of  time  produce  an  ex- 
plosion tbat  will  demoIFsh  the  whole  system. 

These  observations  of  his  Excellency  most  assuredly 
merit  the  most  profound  deliberations  of  that  body  to 
to  whom  they  are  addressed,  if  there  are  any  to  be 
found  among  those  who  are  advocates  of  the  banking 
system  capable  of  serious  reasoning  on  that  subject. 
Had  their  former  deliberations  been  influenced  by  such 
suggestions  I  presume  very  few  banks  would  have  ever 
had  an  existence  in  our  country.  That  merchant, 
trader,  or  manufacturer  who  depends  for  support  from 
the  banks  will  be  always  in  the  most  extreme  exigen- 
cies, and  will  have  occasion  of  access  to  more  than  one 
bank,  which  may  enable  him  in  these  exigencies  to 
borrow  from  one  to  pay  the  other,  and  thereby 
support  his  credit.  This,  as  his  excellency  is 
pleased  to  observe,  gives  the  appearance  of  activity  and 
indications  of  prosperity  to  Lis  affairs  also ;  but  the 
same  fatal  malatfy  or  hectic  is  by  this  intercourse  com- 
iiiunicatcd  to  his  affairs,  and  although  extraordinary 
industry,  or  a  train  of  favourable  circumstances  may 
procrastinate  the  period  of  his  final  destruction,  yet  the 
effect  is  certain.  Desperate  adventurers  may  by  loans 
Irora  those  accommodating  money  manufacturers  ob- 
tain large  sums,  which  will  enable  them  to  make  a 
dash  (as  they  term  it,)  which  if  fortunate,  may  give 
them  further  credit,  and  enable  them  to  continue  their 
course  of  speculation,  until  they  eventually  involve 
themselves  and  their  friends  in  remediless  ruin.  To 
such,  (and  there  are  thousands  such,)  I  never  -would 
apply  the  honourable  appellation  of  merchant,  or  that 
of  mercantile,  to  auch  base  robberies  as  the  l>ankers 
enable  them  to  commit.  A  great  part  of  the  business 
termed  commercial  is  carried  on  this  way,  aud  \yere 
it  not  for  those  vermin,  the  regular  and  prudent  mer- 
chant would  require  no  other  aid  from  paper^  than  that 


$9 

in  the  form  of  bills  of  exchange^  and  no  other  ought  (o 
be  allowed  by  any  government  under  heaven.  Banks, 
as  many  of  them  are  conducted,  are  mere  factories  of 
a  commodity  called  bank  bills,  and  these  uiaiiufactories 
are  by  far  more  numerous  than  those  of  any  other  com- 
modity in  the  United  States,  and  these  bills  arc  not 
only  introduced  into  circulation  by  confidential  agents, 
but  wlien  they  have  found  their  way  to  our  large 
cities,  %re  purchased  up  by  the  same  confidential  agents 
at  from  6  to  30  per  cent  discount. 

There  is  no  useful  manufactory  carried  on  in  these 
states  that  can  afford  to  pay  bank  interest  on  tlieir 
stock,  admitting  they  were  sure  of  successive  discounts, 
and  as  they  cannot  be  sure  of  this,  their  whole  stock  is 
liable  to  be  forced  into  the  market  and  sacrificed  to 
bank  rapacity  and  to  their  total  ruin  ;  and  this  has  been 
uniformly  the  case  with  many  of  our  most  useful  man- 
ufactories to  the  incalculable  injury  of  the -country. 

There  is  nothing  more  certain,  than  that  the  com- 
merce of  every  country  must  depend  on  the  quantity, 
quality  and  price  of  its  productions.  Make  as  much 
bank  money  as  you  please,  it  never  willjnduce  foreign- 
ers to  purchase  an^'  more  of  your  productions :  the 
more  bank  money  you  have  the  higher  price  you  must 
pay  for  the  productions  of  the  soil,  and  also  every  kind 
of  manufactured  articles  will  come  higher  in  the  mar- 
ket, and  consequently,  the  profit  less,  and  purchasers 
will  get  supplied  on  better  terms  elsewhere. 

In  addition  to  what  has  been  said  on  the  banking  sys- 
tem, 1  here  insert  a  succinct  history  of  a  bank  in  the 
state  of  Itliode  Island,  near  the  line  of  Massachusetts, 
taken  from  the  democratic  press. 

«  In  the  year  ISOr?,  a  bank  was  established  in  the 
town  of  Gloucester,  containing  ahout  a  dozen  houses. 
This  bank  i^ommonced  its  operations  with  n  capital 


60 

coukposed  of  two  thousand  shares  of  fifty  dollars  each, 
amounting  to  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  From 
this  bank,  Andrew  Dexter  Jun.  an  illustrious  specula- 
tor, borrowed  the  small  sum  of  eight^undr(Sd  forty-five 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  seventy  one  dollars  in  the 
notes  of  that  bank,  for  which  he  gave  his  promisary 
notes  in  a  new  and  improved  form.  As  every  revolv- 
ing year  produces  novelties  to  excite  admiration  and 
wonder,  the  reader  should  not  be  surprised  that  this 
neplus  ultra  of  paper  accommodation  was  reserved  for 
the  invention  of  this  village,  neither  let  him  wonder 
why  this  important  discovery  was  not  first  made  in 
Boston,  New- York,  or  Philadelphia.  This  little  town 
has  long  been  miraculous  for  inventions.  As  early  as 
the  year  177S-9,  founderies  was  established  in  that 
vicinity  for  manufacturing  money.  A  coin  was  cast  in 
immense  quantities  in  imitation  of  English  hali-pence, 
which  obtained  extensive  circulation,  specimens  of 
which  are  still  to  be  met  with  in  almost  every  state  in 
the  union.  But  since  the  discovery  of  creating  real 
and  substantial  wealth  by  ingenious  impressions  on 
slips  of  handsome  paper,  which  of  all  others  is  the 
greatest  ever  made  by  man  !  the  tedious  and  laborious 
practice  of  procuring  materials'and  fabricating  metallic 
money  is  superceeded,  and  the  most  penetrating  and 
prolific  inventions  have  been  turned  to  that  object. 
This  bank  having  accomplished  all  the  purposes  of  its 
establishment  closed  its  concerns,  which  circumstance 
has  developed  some  of  the  secrets  of  such  institutions, 
and  we  may  reasonably  expect  occurrences  equally 
wonderful,  on  the  final  result  of  many  other  similar 
institutions,  in  places  of  greater  consequence. 

Here  follows  the  form  of  a  promisary  note,  receive^ 
at  the  Gloucester  bank  without  indorscr. 


61 

"  1  Andrew  Dexter  Jun.  do  promise  to  pay  to  the 
President  and  directors  of  tlie  Farmer's  Exchange 
Bankj,  or  their  order  in  years  from 

the  date  with  interest,  at  two  per  cent  per  annum.  It 
being  understood,  however,  that  the  said  Andrew  Dex- 
ter Jun.  shall  not  be  called  on  to  make  payment,  until 
Le  thinks  proper,  he  being  the  principal  stock^holder, 
and  best  knowing  when  it  will  be  proper  to  pay  the 
same." 

For  the  gratification  of  the  reader  and  further  illus- 
tration of  the  honesty  of  bankers,  I  insert  the  amount 
of  the  respective  notes  witli  their  periods  of  payment. 

ist.  Note  dated  Nov.  4lh.  1808,  pay- 1 
ablejin  8  years,  at  two  per  cent  interest.  J  "^ 

2d.  Dated  Nov.  30th,  for  the  sum  of  32,000 

3d.  Dated  12th,  for  the  sum  of  6,000 

4th.  Dated  about  the  same  time,  for       507,771 


gSi5,r71 
Making  in  the  whole  eight  hundred  and  forty-five 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  seventy  one  dollars,  witli 
which  Dexter  carried  on  a  scene  of  speculation  and 
fraud,  similar  to  what  is  continually  practised  by 
others  who  have  not  yet  consummated  their  plans. 
Hundreds,  and  perhaps  thousands  of  people  deplore 
the  fatal  credulity  by  which  they  were  induced  to  con- 
vert their  property  into  this  paper,  not  now  wortli  a 
farthing  on  a  thousand  dollars,  and  which  has  reduced 
them  from  affluence,  to  beggary  and  wretchedness. 

Not  being  scrupulous  about  prices.  Dexter  and  his 

friends  possessed  themselves  of  property  to  an  immense 

amount,  in  the  most  valuable  estates  in  New-England. 

This  bank  ceased  its  operations  on  the  27th  of  Feb. 

|809,  with  tlic  sum  of  specie  in  its  vault,  of  eighty- 


6S 

six  dollars  and  fii'ty  cents.  The  legislature  of  Rhode- 
Island^  appointed  a  committee  to  investigate  the  whole 
ef  this  nefarious  transaction.  That  committee  publish- 
ed a  luminous  account  for  the  information  of  their 
constituents,  from  which  the  substance  of  this  account 
is  taken.  I  believe,  however,  that  Dexter  and  friends 
are  left  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  fruits  of  their 
villaoy. 

Besides  the  banking  system,  there  are  other  establish- 
ments equally  repugnant  to  justice,  and  not  only  ab- 
horrent to  the  principles  of  republican  forms,  but  to 
the  principles  of  every  other  form  of  government  un- 
der heaven. 

I  shall  here  in  addition  to  what  has  been  said  on 
banks,  notice  some  of  them  :  though  they  are  not  so 
universally  inisehievous  in  their  consequences  and 
abominable  in  their  effects,  yet  they  are  highly  repre- 
hensible, and  are  further  evidence  of  the  corruption  of 
legislators,  and  of  the  little  regard  paid  by  them  to 
those  laws  called  constitution^,  which  have  been  fram- 
ed with  so  much  circumspection  and  care  by  wise  sa- 
ges, to  set  bounds  to  the  power  of  legislative  authority, 
and  are  sometimes  called  the  supreme  laws  of  the  land. 

Totally  regardless  of  every  restraint  either  of  law, 
conscience,  or  justice,  they  are  at  any  and  at  all  times 
ready  to  promote  the  interested  views  of  mercenary 
speculatorSj  or  in  other  words,  public  robbers. 

The  establishment  of  turnpike  companies,  though 
they  have  met  w  ith  considerable  opposition,  they  have 
nevertheless  succeeded  universally,  and  theirT  univer- 
sality has  been  adduced  as  an  argument,  in  favour  of 
their  utility. 

It  must  be  acknowledged  that  a  combination  of  mer- 
cenary wretches,  will  always  succeed  in  obtaining  a 
majority  in  their  favour,  in  every  case  where  profit  of 


63 

cent  per  cent  is  Ihe  object.  Thus  they  have  induced 
legislatures  to  wrest  the  soil  of  highways  from  the  pub- 
lic, the  rightful  owners,  and  to  vest  it  in  themselves, 
and  with  it,  the  power  to  rob  the  traveller  as  he  passes* 

The  laying  out,  improving  highways  or  roads,  was 
one  of  the  first  improvements  of  civilized  society  that 
history  records,  and  I  believe  anteriour  to  the  setting 
up  the  bounds  of  individual  property  in  lands ;  be  this 
as  it  may,  no  one  I  presume  will  dispute  its  antiquity, 
or  the  universality  of  the  right,  that  every  son  of  Adam 
has  in  the  free  legitimate  use  of  the  lands  thus  set 
apart,  like  the  air  we  breathe,  it  is  free  for  every  one 
that  has  lungs  for  respiration  :  so  also  on  original  prin- 
ciples the  road  or  highway,  is  as  free  for  all  the  hu- 
man species  who  have  power  to  travel.  The  native 
Hindoo  has  an  equal  right  on  tlicse  principles,  to  occu- 
py the  roads  in  the  United  States  as  the  native  citizen^ 
and  this  right  is  made  reciprocal  in  every  civilized 
nation  on  earth.  It  is  therefore,  original,  universal, 
and  unalienable.  Where  then  in  the  name  of  righteous- 
ness, do  legislaturds  obtain  the  right  or  the  power  of 
vesting  this  property  in  the  hands  of  any  company  of 
speculators  whatever. 

This  right  could  never  be  delegated  by  their  consti- 
tuents for  it  is  unalienable  ;  it  is  therefore,  as  in  the 
case  of  banks,  an  sissumed  prerogative,  despotic,  and 
arbitrary.  I  am  sensible  that  when  legislators  are 
called  on  to  vindicate  their  conduct  in  this,  as  in  many 
otlier  eases,  they  begin  to  recite  their  precedents  and 
authorities  imported  from  Great  Britaiu  and  elsewhere, 
and  expatiate  largely  and  learnedly  on  the  utility  and 
importance  of  good  roads,  of  easy  communication,  the 
advantages  that  Lave  thence  resulted  in  Europe,  &c. 
I  acknowledge  the  force  of  their  reasons,  and  lament 
that  they  arc  so  palpable.     I  know  that  the  rights  and 


64 

liberties  of  EnglishmGn  were  once  recognized  and  re= 
spceted  by  their  rulers,  but  they  by  degrees  have  beeii 
wrested  from  them,  one  by  one,  by  unprincipled  and 
infamous  knaves,  until  they  have  no  rights  left  them, 
except  that  of  being  governed  by  their  superiors,  in  a 
despotic  merciless  manner,  to  which  condition  we  are 
advancing  with  gigantic  strides.  The  public  are  al- 
ways competent  to  make  all  such  improvements  as  will 
conduce  to  public  happiness  and  prosperity.  To  en- 
deavour to  advance  those  improvements,  faster  than  the 
public  ability  will  allow,  by  wresting  public  rights  out 
of  their  hands  and  placing  them  in  the  hands  of  specu- 
lators to  improve  for  them,  is  the  most  damnable  of 
all  political  herisies;  and  it  is  invariably  the  case,  the 
public  are  plundered  for  individual  emolument.  It  is 
not  reasonable  to  expect,  that  when  the  legislature 
have  robbed  the  people  of  their  interest  in  the  soil  of 
highways,  and  bestowed  it  on  a  company  of  their  fa- 
vourites,  that  they  will  not  follow  their  example,  and 
rob  the  traveller. 

Men  may  as  well  attempt  to  annihilate  the  principle 
of  gravity,  as  to  derive  public  good  from  political 
evil,  or  by  legislative  interfluence  make  that  right 
which  is  naturally  and  originally  wrong.  If  the  inten- 
tion in  vesting  the  property  of  roads  in  the  hands  of 
chartered  companies  was  to  public  advantage,  that  in- 
tention has  been  disappointed;  it  has  succeeded  as  every 
public  measure  eternally  will,  which  is  founded  in  er- 
roneous and  unjust  principles.  A  company  chartered 
for  the  ostensible  purpose  of  making  good  roads,  and 
for  facilitating  inland  communication,  have  widely  dif- 
ferent views ;  the  avowed  end  is  calculated  to  reconcile 
fools,  (which  unhappily  make  a  majority  without,  as 
well  as  within,)  to  the  measure.  The  real  intention*  end 
and  aim  of  thi$  turnpike  gang,  like  bankers,  is  to  make 


6$ 

the  most  money  <hey  can  nglit  op  wrong.  They  set  ttt 
work,  make  superficial  repairs,  provide  their  gates  and 
century  boxes  at  stipulated  distances,  and  as  soon  as 
the  road  passes  the  sanction  of  some  interested  unprin- 
cipled inspectors,  they  commence  the  plunder  of  the 
way  worn  traveller.  He  is  frequently  unreasonably  de- 
tained, often  insulted  and  abused,  and  nine  times  out  of 
ten  pays  for  making  the  road  worse  instead  of  better. 
Thousands  who  wer^  compelled  to  make  long  journiea 
by  land  during  the  late  war,  will  attest  to  the  truth  of 
this  statement.  It  is  not  denied,  but  that  there  may  be 
cases  in  which  the  local  circumstances  may  be  such,  as 
to  render  it  expedient  for  government  to  take  a  road 
or  highway  under  their  immediate  guardianship  aud  con- 
trol, and  circumstances  may  also  render  it  just  to  de- 
mand a  contribution  from  the  traveller ;  but  these  cases 
are  extremely  rare,  and  when  they  do  liappen.  a  con- 
scientious regard  should  be  had  to  the  rights  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  as  soon  as  necessary  improvements  ate  made^ 
such  interference  should  immediately  cease,  and  the 
rights  of  the  people  be  restored. 

The  only  legitimate  object  of  all  political  institutions, 
is  the  advantage  of  the  individuiils  who  are  to  beimmed- 
iately  or  remotely  effected  by  them.  All  thatcannot  be 
made  to  centre  in  this  national  wealth,  prosperity  and 
glory,  can  be  advantagious  only  to  those  self-interestied 
impostors,  who  from  the  earliest  account  of  time,  have 
blinded,  duped,  and  confounded  the  understandings  of 
their  fellow-men.  the  more  easily  to  sink  them  into  de- 
basement and  misery. 

The  desire  to  extend  national  improvements  beyond 
what  the  gcnious,  inclination  and  circumstances  of  the 
people  will  justify,  is  founded  in  error  and  prejudice  : 
neither  power  or  knowledge  are  happiness,  nor  ean  they 
lontributc  any  thing  towards  producing  it.  unless  they 


"^^ 


66 

are  aceotnpaiiird  >vith  strict  morality  and  virtue.  £veti 
the  desire  to  promote  the  acqui!^itioJl  and  dissemination 
of  science,  may  become  inordinate,  and  measures  may 
be  adopted  to  effect  that  47nrpose3  totally  incompatible 
Avitb  justice,  virtue,  or  sound  policy,  and  vvhitJi  wi!l 
uhimalely  lend  to  oppress  one  part  of  the  community. 
'i'he  poof  man  of  merit  may  be,  by  poliiieal  establish- 
ment, thrown  into  the  buck  ground,  and  tlie  most  use- 
ful talents  and  worth,  lost  to  society,  while  the  gradua- 
ted dunce  is  basking  in  the  sunshine  of  public  patron- 
age and  fiivour.  It  becomes  us  to  desire  that  all  men 
may  be  made  wise,  and  it  becomes  us  at  the  same  time 
to  desire  that  every  political  effort  should  be  founded 
on  such  principles  of  equality,  that  every  member  of 
the  political  family  might  participate  in  the  favour. 
Not  that  one  part  should  be  instructed,  by  hazarding 
the  morality,  happiness,  and  consequent,  well  being  of 
the  rest. 

This  leftds  me  to  make  some  observations  on  lotte- 
<ries.  They  have  generally  been  granted  avowedly  by 
legislatures,  to  obtain  pecuniary  aid  for  the  promotion 
of  some  particular  object,  in  wHich  the  interest  of  the 
community  is  materially  concerned,  the  expense  of 
which  it  seems  is  considered  to  be  beyond  the  ability  of 
the  public  to  pay  by  fair  and  equal  taxation.  Govern- 
ment therefore,  to  avoid  the  abhorrent  term  taxation, 
iristitute  a  gamblin*;  system,  in  which  they  are  sure  to 
win  the  required  sum,  by  indirectly  bartering  the  vir- 
tue and  morality  of  the  people  at  large,  for  the  promo- 
tion of  objects  local  in  effect  and  partial  in  operation. 
There  are  now  lotteries  in  opperation  for  the  promotion 
of  medical  science,  opening  roads.  &c.  I  mean  not  to 
descend  to  all  the  minutia  of  this  scene  of  legal  gam- 
bling, but  will  marks  its  gener»l  character  and  effects. 
It  seems  then  that  government  Ibr  the  purpose  of  rais- 


67 

lug  some  few  thousands  of  dollars  for  the  promotion  of 
a  favourite  object,  institute  this  game,  apjjoint  the 
managers  to  conduct  it  on  their  behalf,  and  challenge 
the  public  at  large  to  engage  in  the  play  :  but  too  im- 
patient to  wait  the  tardy  movement  of  the  public,  they 
offer  terms  to  soine  dashing  speculators,  %o  throw  for 
the  whole  at  once,  and  take  the  lot.  These  neyr^  pro- 
prietors, then  divide  and  subdivide  from  halves  to,  six- 
teenths. The  original  terms  are  altered  and  new  ar- 
rangements made,  and  the  original  plan  so  improved, 
as  to  form  a  variety  of  games  in  such  a  manner,  as  to 
suit  all  ranks,  characters,  and  conditions,  from  the 
chancellor  to  the  chimney  sweep ;  from  ten  dollars  to 
•five  cents  ;  and  at  every  corner,  in  every  street  of  city, 
town  and  village  through  the  land,  the  eye  is  met 
with  a  lay- bill,  Lottery  mid  Exchange  Office,  inviting 
people  to  call  and  play,  and  (he  call  is  but  too  effec- 
tual, for  we  see  them  thronged  with  rich  and  poor. 
Mack  and  white,  bond  and  free,  father  and  son.  mo- 
ther and  daughter,  ^\l  engage  with  avidity  in  this  ne- 
farious gambling,  all  play  and  all  loose,  and  the  few 
who  may  chance  to  win  are  the  most  unfortunate. 
Thus  by  dexterous  management,  government  wins  fif- 
teen per  cent,  and  the  other  players,  her  deputies, 
eighty- five,  and  the  whole  country  becomes  a  scene  of 
gambling.  Millions  are  sported  away,  and  thousands 
of  the  citizens  from  this  source,  contract  a  habit  of 
gamjbling  and  all  its  concomitant  vices,  that  continue 
through  life.  Many  who  eitgage  with  timidity  at  first, 
l>y  his  own  or  his  neighbours  good  luck  grows  bold, 
ventures  larger,  until  at  length  he  ventures  all  and 
loses  all.  The  time  and  money  squandered  in  this  abo- 
minable manner  since  the  Medical  Science  lotteries 
have  been  in  operation,  has  been  more  than  double  to 
the  amount  gained  by  government,  so  that  the  fact  po- 


68 

.'iitirely  is,  that  instead  of  promoting  medicgil  science  it 
ba/»  absolutely  oromoted  a  science  of  gambling,  fraud 
and  iniquity,  by  three  times  the  amount.  Thus  govern- 
ment Ja  their  iaudible  zeal  for  the  promotion  of  a  par- 
ticur^r  sRJenee,  are  patronising  and  teaching  by  prac- 
tice li'  science  or  art,  ten  thousand  times  wor«e  in  its 
moral  ejects,  than  all  the  bodily  maladies  incident  to 
man. 

«  Whither  by  fates  decree  or  natures  curse, 

The  human  race  degenerate  still  to  worse ; 

So  the  boats  brawny  crew  the  current  stem, 

And  slow  advancing,  struggle  with  the  stream ;    "" 

But  if  they  slack  their  hands  or  cease  to  strive. 

Then  down  the  flood  with  headlong  haste  they  drive.'^ 

Admiting  the  assertions  of  >  the  poet  to  be  .correct, 
and  they  are  corroborated  by  high  ecclesiastical  autho- 
rity, it  most  assuredly  behovci  those  who  pilot  the  po- 
litical bark,  to  encourage  the  hearts  and  strengthen  the 
hands  of  all  orders  of  subjects,  to  strive  against  the 
torrent  of  immorality,  which  threatens  a  total  inunda- 
tion. 

It  is  alledged  that  there  are  laws  with  severe  penal- 
ties against  vending  policies  or  insuring  on  the  numbers 
of  tickets ;  that  our  pious  legislature  have  taken  all 
possible  precaution  to  prevent  this  as  well  as  all  other 
vicious  and  immoral  practices.  This  is  just  like  a  profli- 
gate father  correcting  his  son  for  throwing  the  die  while 
he  holds  the  stakes  and  shares  the  winings.  It  has  been 
before  observed,  that  what  is  originally  wrong  never 
can  be  by  legislative  or  any  other  authority  made  inno- 
cent and  right ;  and  legislatures  by  the  inconsistency 
of  their  conduct  and  by  the  appointment  of  men  to  of- 
fices totally  disqualified  by  ignorance  and  vice  to  fill 
|hem>  hare  brought  all  laws  however  salutary  into  dis- 


(j9 

t  espccl,  ami  authoi-ilv  into  merited  contempt.  Laws 
necessary  and  salutary  arc  trampled  on  with  impunity; 
and  that  authority  which  ought  to  enforce,  ai*e  fre- 
quently among  those  who  infringe  them.  If  the  foun- 
tain is  corrupt,  it  isimpossihle  that  pure  streams  should 
flow  from  it.  But  good  sometimes  arises  oui  of  evil. 
The  manure  of  the  agricuituialist  stinks,  but  is  of 
use  ;  with  it  he  feeds  \m  hungary  acres,  it  fertilizes 
his  fields ;  and  hence  the  labourers  hope.  From  this 
iniquitous  scene  great  crops  are  expected  to  grow.  Two 
hundred  learned  sons  of  Escislnplus,  rising  like  vermin 
from  putrefaction,  are  the  annual  antj«*ipa1ed  harvest. 
A  formidable  auxiliary,  sure  to  those  already  armed 
with  pill  and  bolus,  Lapes  Infcrni,  Syringe,  knife  and 
saw,  to  attack  the  effects  of  luxury  and  vice.  Tkti  can 
they  amputate  idle  vicious  habits,  purge  out  crimes> 
and  by  theip  emetics  cotnpel  the  body  politic  to  dis- 
gorge its  corruptions  ?  If  so  united  widi  the  humble, 
harmless  teachers  of  religion  and  morality,  these  mis- 
sionaries of  science  may  do  much,  and  the  torrent  of 
ihoral  evil  may  meet  a  check.  The  acquisition  of 
science  is  the  developement  of  truth.  Truth  needs  no 
auxiliary  nor  requires  any  ornament,  nor  yet  any  aid 
from  political  institutions.  It  requires  nothing  more 
from  government  than  to  be  left  to  recommend  herself 
by  her  native  intrinsic  excellence,  and  her  votaries  at 
full  liberty  to  pursue.  Every  interference  of  legisla- 
tive authority  is  puerile,  impotent  and  worse  than  vain. 
It  is  the  same  as  establishing  by  law,  one  orthodox  sect 
for  the  promotion  of  a  true  system  of  religion.  In  every 
republic,  where  virtue  and  rectitude  are  the  ruling 
principles,  and  on  which  their  laws  are  founded,  the 
advancement  of  science  will  keep  pace  with  every  other 
interest,  and  it  would  be  absurd  to  push  it  faster.  In 
ai!  uncorrupted  republic  where  merit  is  rcwarded,^or 


70 

vather  where. merit  is  considered  requisite  in  a  public 
eharae<er,  there  are  sufhcient  indueenients  to  prompt 
men  to  the  acquisition  of  science  :  and  indeed  there  is 
apossibility  of  its  out  running  itself.  This  has  absolutely 
been  the  case  in  some  of  (he  eastern  states,  science  has 
been  a  staple  commodity  ,•  and  indeed  it  has  become  what 
merchants  term  a  drug  in  the  market,  and  would  have 
been  still  worse  :  it  would  have  hung  as  a  dead  weight 
oa  society,  were  it  not  for  the  ignorance  and  stupidity 
of  their  western  neighbours. 

In  framing  laws  for  the  promotion  of  any  particular 
object,  the  strictest  regard  should  be  paid,  not  only  to 
all  the  provisions  of  such  laws,  but  to  every  poisibic 
circumstance  bearing  tendency  and  effect,  either  prox- 
imate or  remote.  Viewing  it  thus,  if  it  appears  that 
though  the  immediate  elFeets  will  bft  salutary  and  de- 
sirable, yet  the  remote  consequences  will  be  probably 
pernicious  and  dangerous  to  the  morality,  and  conse- 
quently, to  the  happiness  of  society,  which  will  require 
the  energetical  interference  of  other  laws.  No  object, 
however  important  and  desirable,  can  justify  theii* 
adoption.  The  law  authorizing  lotteries,  is  a  most 
palpable  case  in  point.  The  mischievous  effects  of  this 
law,  has  been  experienced  to  that  degiee,  that  legisla* 
tures  have  been  induced  to  enact  laws  with  uncommon- 
jy  severe  penalties,  to  restrain  excesses  to  which  this  law 
has  given  birth  :  yet  notwithstanding  the  unusual  se- 
verity of  the  penalties  of  these  restraining  laws,  in  open 
day,  in  the  face  of  authority,  in  the  most  public  man- 
ner, a  scene  of  gambling  is  carried  on,  disgraceful  to 
any  society  calling  itself  civilized,  mueh  more  christian- 
ized. And  yet  legislatures  so  far  from  removing  the 
cause,  they  tell  us  with  great  self  complaisance  and 
approbation,  that  much  greater  sums  may  be  raised 
by  lotteries  to  augment  the  revenue.    We  may  there^ 


n 

fore  expect  to  hear  of  an  office  being  established  for 
the  purpose  of  granting  licences  to  policy  offices.  And 
since  this  vice  cannot  be  restrained  by  law,  it  will  be 
consistent  with  modern  politics  to  make  it  prt^table. 
It  is  the  duty  of  a  patriotic  government,  to  have  its 
attention  forever  alive  to  the  sentiments,  manners,  and 
habits  of  the  people,  to  encourage  such  as  are  favoura- 
ble to  virtue,  and  to  check  in  (he  bud,  such  as  may  lead 
to  disorder,  vice,  and  corruption.  But  how  does  their 
conduct  correspond  with  this  maxim  ?  Government 
plays  the  part  of  an  unnatural  stepmother,  not  that  of 
an  effectionate  parent,  when  she  contents  herself  by 
vigorous  punishments  to  revenge  the  commission  of  a 
crime,  of  which  she  has  herself  set  the  example  and 
hung  out  a  lure ;  instead  of  imbuing  the  mind  with 
those  principles  of  virtue,  which  would  have  rendered 
punishment  unnecessary.  Nothing  can  be  more  un- 
questionable, than  that  the  manners  and  opinions  of 
mankind  are  of  the  utmost  consequence  to  the  general 
welfare  of  society,  for  manners  are  nothing  more  than 
opinions  carried  out  into  action,  and  such  as  the  foun- 
tain is,  such  will  be  the  streams  that  proceed  from  it. 
In  truth,  the  whole  system  oT  restraining  laws  under 
these  circumstances  is  a  per{)etual  struggle  against 
the  laws  of  nature  and  necessity.  The  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple will  in  all  instances  be  swayed  by  their  own  views 
and  propensities  :  no  project  can  be  more  absurd,  than 
that  of  reversing  those  propensities  by  the  interposition 
of  law.  He  that  sjiould  command  a  conflagatiou  to 
cease,  or  a  tempest  to  be  still,  would  not  display  more 
ignorance  of  the  system  of  the  universe,  than  he,  who 
with  a  code  of  penal  laws,  expects  to  restore  a  corrupt- 
ed and  vicious  people,  to  temperance  and  virtue.  The 
character  of  a  state  or  nation,  is  not  thus  to  be  altered, 
when  they  are  once  debauched  by  the  foul  example  of 


^2 

goTernment ;  they  never  can  be  recovered  to  purlt y^ 
Laws  are  an  empty  name  when  emenatiug  from  an  \m- 
pure  source  to  operate  upon  a  corrupted  people. 

All  that  is  to  be  asked  on  the  part  of  government  in 
behalf  of  morality,  virtue  and  science,  is  a  clear  stage 
upon  which  they  may  exert  their  own  energies,  to  ab- 
stain from  holding  out  incentives  to  vice,  to  lay  some 
restraint  on  the  violent  disturbers  of  the  peace  of  soci- 
ety, that  their  principles  may  go  on  undisturbed  to  their 
natural  conclusion.  There  never  was  an  instance  where 
error  unaided  by  power,  ever  triumphed  over  virtue 
and  truth.  Who  would  be  guilty  of  the  absurdity  to 
believe  that  with  equal  arras,  truth  and  virtue  can  ever 
be  defeated. 

It  has  been  shown  that  it  cannot  be  the  duty  of  le- 
gislatures to  do  any  thing  detrimental  to  general  hap- 
piness, and  it  appears  with  equal  evidence  that  they 
have  no  right  to  do  so.  There  cannot  be  a  more  ab- 
surd proposition  than  that  which  affirms  the  right  of 
doing  wrong.  A  mistake  of  this  sort  has  been  attend- 
ed with  the  m?,st  pernicious  consequences  in  public  and 
political  assemblies.  It  cannot  be  too  strongly  incul- 
cated, that  legislatures  are  in  no  case  empowered  to  es- 
tablish absurdity  and  injustice  ;  that  though  the  people 
passively  submit  or  assent  to  it,  their  submission  or 
cbnsent  is  not,  as  has  been  rediculously  asserted,  the 
voice  of  truth  or  the  voice  of  God,  nor  can  universal 
consent  convert  wrong  into  right. 

After  duly  considering  the  nature  and  tendency  of 
those  laws  which  go  to  establish  hanking  companies, 
turnpike  companies,  and  lotteries,  the  reader  cannot 
be  surprised  at  ihe  universal  complaint  of  hard  times, 
nor  be  at  a  loss  respecting  the  causes  that  produce  them. 
Hard  times  is  a  hackneyed  saying,  on  that  aceouat  it 
excites  but  little  attention  or  interest,  because  it  is 


7S 

familiar  to  ail.  It  as  old  and  as  universal  as  the  esta- 
blishment of  political  government,  which  was  its  birth- 
place and  its  dam  ;  and  it  is  deplorably  true,  that  it  had 
Its  origin  in  the  derelection  of  honest  principles,  by  po- 
litical hypocrites  of  the  old  world,  whose  example  is 
strictly  copyed  by  the  political  apostates  of  the  new. 
Though  the  expression  might  have  been  in  vogue  from* 
the  first  settlement  of  this  country,  it  could  have  had 
no  signification  here,  after  the  concomitant  dif- 
ficulties incidental  and  unavoidable  in  the  settle- 
ment of  a  new  world  were  surmotmted  ;  not  until  the 
fell  monsters,  ambition  and  avarice,  reared  their  accurs^ 
heads,  obtained  the  seat,  and  corrupted  the  source  of 
law,  order  and  justice,  and  trampled  with  contempt  up- 
on the  rights  of  the  people.  If  the  expression  was 
used  at  all,  it  was  founded  on  nothing  more,  than  the  im- 
agination of  the  complainant,  and  the  power  rested  with 
iiimself  to  remove  the  cause.  The  prudent  industrious 
man  was  sure  of  a  competency  (though  poor,)  from  the 
fruits  of  his  labour.  The  impotent  were  comparitively 
few,  and  pauperism  only  historically  known.  The  scene 
is  changed,  hard  times  do  absolutely  exist,  and  some  of 
the  immediate  causes  have  been  developed. 

Let  us  pursue  the  inquiry  a  little  farther,  aind  see  if 
there  areuot  causes  more  remote,  which  have  originated 
with  ourselves,  and  which  have  contributed  to  product" 
the  effects  of  which  we  complain.  Self-examination  is 
salutary,  just  and  necessary,  especially  in  those  who 
censure  the  conduct  of  others.  Have  we  not  suffered 
ourselves  to  be  deceived  by  political  demagogues  and 
impostors,  into  this  fatal  thraldom,  which  without  our 
timely  and  vigorous  exertions,  will  terminate  in  the  to- 
tal destruction  of  our  invaluable  republican  institutions? 
Not  that  we  have  been  careless  and  remiss,  but  that  wc 


74 

have  been  guilty  of  a  prostitution  of  the  exercise  of  our 
political  franchise,   which  has    operated   as    a  cause 
of  the  calamities  which  now  beset,  and  which  are  fast 
maturing  to  overwhelm  hs.     I  mean  the  mode  pursued 
by  us  for  the  appointment  of  men,  to  whom  by  our  suf- 
ferages  we  delegate   the  powers  of  legeslation.     Is  it 
not  the  case,  that  we  suffer  restless,  weak  and  worth- 
less partisans,  to  inflame  our  minds,  and  induce  us  to 
form  ourselves  into  political  associations,  the  obvious 
tendency  of  which,  is  to  make  a  part  stand  for  the  whole. 
A  number  of  us  sometimes  more,  and  sometimes  less, 
combine  together.     Our  intention  is  sometimes  avow- 
ed, but  it  is  always  with  an  intention  or  view  to  give  to 
our  opinions  weight  and  operation,  which  the  opinion  of 
unconnected    individuals   cannot   possess.      A  greater 
number,  some  from  the  urgency  of  their  private  affairs, 
some  from  a  temper  averse  to  concourse  and  confusion, 
and  others  from  a  conscientious  disapprobation  of  the 
measures  pursued,  withhold  them  selves  from  «uch  com- 
binations.   The  acrimonious,  the  intemperate,  and  the 
artful,  will  generally  if  not  always,  be  found  among  the 
most  forward  in  matters  of  this  kind.     The  prudent, 
the  sober,  the  sceptical,  and  contemplative,  jthose  who 
have  no  resentments  to  indulge  or  gratify,  and  no  sel- 
fish motive  to  promote,  will  keep  aloof,  or  will  be  ovep- 
liorn  and  lost  in  this  chaos.     What  justification  can  be 
set  up,  for  a  few  persons,  who  thus,  from  mere  impe- 
tuosity of  temper  occupy  a  post,  the  very  nature  and 
principles  of  w^iicb,  aiti  to  pass  themselves  for  some- 
thing greater  and  of  mm'e  importance  than  they  are  ? 
Are  we  likely  to  promote  our  most  important  concerns 
by  trusting  them  in   such  hands  ?    Can  we,  or  have  we 
any  reason  to  expect  any  thing  but  strife,  peculation 
and  corruption  of  tlie  blackest   sort,  as  the  fruits  of 


75 

such  combinations.  Add  to  this,  that  associations  for  the 
promotion  of  one  particular  set  of  political  tenets,  has 
given  birth  to  a  counter  association  in  favour  of  another. 
Thus  we  have  involved  ourselves  in  annual  mischief, 
confusion  and  uproar,  at  our  elections,  which  is  a  dis- 
grace to  humanity,  and  which  savages  would  shrinlt 
from  with  laudible  disgust. 

Folitieal  improvement  never  can  he  effected  or  pro- 
moted but  through  the  medium  of  the  discovery  of  po- 
litical truth,  but  truth  never  will  be  investigated  where 
violence  passion  and  weakness  take  the  lead ;  to  whatever 
property  of  the  human  mind,  or  accident  affecting  it,  we 
are  to  ascribe  the  phenomenon,  certain  it  is,  that  truth 
doth  not  lie  on  the  surface ;  it  is  laborious  and  patient  stu- 
dy and  reflection  that  leads  to  its  discovery  .If  therefore 
we  are  desireousto  liberate  ourselvesor  our  neighbours 
from  the  influence  of  prejudice,  we  should  suffer  nothing 
but  dispassionate  argument  to  bear  sway  in  the  discussion. 

The  writings,  tenets  and  arguments  which  offer  them- 
selves to  public  attention,  should  rest  upon  their  own 
merits.  No  patronage,  no  recommendations^  np  *ist  of 
venerable  names  of  committee  men  to  bribe  our  appro- 
bation and  sufferage,  no  importunity  to  bestow  on  them 
pur  consideration,  and  to  receive  them  with  favor.  These 
are  however,  small  matters.  It  is  much  worse  than  this 
when  the  press  is  taken  under  the  patronage  of  these 
political  associations.  The  publications  are  far  more 
pernicious.  They  ^re  then  perused,  not  to  see  whether 
what  they  contain  be  false  or  true,  but  that  we  may 
learn  from  them,  how  we  are  to  think  upon  the  sub- 
jects in  which  the  leaders  of  our  party  wish  to  instruct 
us.  Thus  by  our  political  societies^  political  sects  are 
generated  upon  grounds  not  less  irrational,  than  the 
superstitions  which  once  induced  men  to  worship  bull?, 


76 

cats,  and  onions.  If  we  wish  to  ariive  at  politicai 
truth  we  must  inquire  and  think  for  ourselves.  If  a 
hundred  men  spontaneously  engage  the  whole  energy 
of  their  faculties  on  tlie  solution  of  a  particular  given 
question,  the  chance  will  be  greater  for  success  than  if 
only  ^\e  were  engaged  upon  it,  for  the  same  reason  the 
chance  will  also  be  increased,  in  proportion  as  the  in- 
tellectual operations  of  these  men  are  individual,  and 
their  conclusions  are  suggested  by  the  reason  of  the 
thing  under  consideration,  uninfluenced  by  any  force, 
either  by  compulsion  or  sympathy.  But  in  political 
associations,  each  of  our  objects  are  to  indentify  our 
creed  with  that  of  our  party.  We  learn  the  shiboleth 
of  our  sect,  and  we  dare  not  leave  our  minds  at  large 
in  the  field  of  inquiry,  lest  we  should  arrive  at  some  ten- 
net  distasteful  to  our  party..  We  have  no  inducement, 
no  temptation  to  inquire.  Party  has  a  more  powerful 
tendency,  than  perhaps  any  other  circumstance  in  hu- 
man affairs,  to  render  the  mind  quiessant,  ignorant  and 
stationary.  Instead  of  making  each  man  an  individual, 
ivhich  the  good  of  the  whole  requires,  it  resolves  all  un- 
derstandings into  one  common  niass,  and  subtracts  from 
each,  all  the  varieties  which  could  distinguish  man 
from  a  bruit  machine.  Having  learned  the* creed  of 
our  party,  we  have  no  longer  any  need  of,  or  employ- 
ment for  those  faculties  which  might  lead  to  a  detec- 
tion of  its  errors.  We  have  arrived  in  our  minds  and 
opinions  at  the  last  page  of  the  volume  of  truth,  and  all 
that  remains,  is  by  some  means  to  effect  the  adoption  of 
our  sentiments  as  the  standard  of  truth,  to  the  whole 
or  a  majority  of  the  community.  A  necessary  attend- 
ant on  these  political  associations,  is  harangue  and  de- 
damation.  A  majority  look  to  these  harangues,  as  the 
school  in  which  they  are  to  study,  in  order  to  become 


ihe  reservoirs  of  practical  truth  to  the  rest  of  mankind. 
Harangues  and  deciamation  lead  to  passion  and  not  to 
knowledge.  The  memory  of  the  hearer  is  crowded 
with  pompous  nothings,  with  images  not  arguments. 
He  is  never  permitted  to  he  soher  enough  to  w«igh  the 
subject  with  an  unshaken  hand.  Truth  dwells  with 
contemplation.  When  hope  and  fear  triumph,  and  re- 
sentment is  perpetually  afloat,  the  faculties  of  reason 
and  investigation  are  compelled  to  quit  the  field. 

What  then  have  we  reason  to  expect  from  our  repre- 
sentation when  they  are  formed  from  the  most  promi- 
nent characters  in  those  comhinations  of  ignorance  and 
corruption  ?  If  we  reflect  on  and  examine  maturely  the 
conduct  of  the  majority  of  our  legislature  in  their  last 
session  we  must  be  convinced  of  the  propriety  of  the 
forgoing  observations,  and  and  also  feel  a  conviction  of 
our  own  errors,  in  placing  confidence  in  men  totally  un- 
worthy  of  it.  Compare  the  apparent  zeal  with  which 
they  set  about  correcting  the  evils  resulting  from  bank 
institutions,  and  the  disordered  state  of  our  currency, 
Vrith  the  final  result  of  their  proceedings  thereon  and 
form  your  own  conclusions.  The  only  remedy  for  the 
enormeties  heretofore  partially  and  imperfectly  describ- 
ed is  alone  to  be  found  in  the  virtue  and  unanimity  of 
the  great  bbdy  of  the  people,  as  has  been  before  hinted. 
On  a  due  exercise  of  their  constitutional  powers  and 
rights  (while  they  are  allowed  to  retain  them,)  rests  the 
the  fate  of  our  invaluable  republican  institutions.  We 
must  if  we  wish  for  reformation,  turn  our  attention  to 
men  of  totally  different  characters  from  those  who  have 
hitherto  enjoyed  our  preference,  to  men  belonging  to 
110  political  faction,  to  men  of  immoveable  patriotism, 
to  men  whose  liberal  and  comprehensive  minds  are  ca- 
pable of  viewing,  weighing,  and  equally  balancing  the 


C8 

interests,  of  the  whole  political  family,  who  will  strive 
to  suppress  all  yice  and  immorality,  and  as  far  as  the 
nature  of  human  affairs  will  permit,  to  remove  every 
incentive  to  it,  and  who  never  will  consent  to  sacrifice 
the  interest  of  ninety-nine  parts,  to  the  interested  views 
of  the  hundreth,  hy  making  them  tributary  to  that  end ; 
neither  consent,  directly  to  barter  the  morals  of  the 
people  to  promote  the  splendour  of  empiricism,^*  lega- 
lize ignorance,  or  make  stupidity  pass  for  native  worth 
and  scientific  excellence,  nor  authorize  monopoly  and 
robbery. 

SEVENTY-SIX. 


♦  Those  crities  who  are  disposed  to  find  fault  with  this 
phraseology,  are  informed  that  this  work  is  not  designed  to 
enlighten  the  wise  or  instruct  the  learned. 


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jurr^str 


Gaylamount 

Pamphlet 

Binder 

Gaylord  Bros.,  Inc. 

Stockton,  Calif. 
! .  M.  Reg.  U.S.Pat.  Off. 


YC  23575 
YC  23576 


W17454 


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